Patek Philippe doesn't lack icons, desirable timepieces and overall recognition. Yet the brand keeps reminding everyone how well versed they are in watchmaking's most demanding and exclusive field, complications. Their 2020 lineup will certainly bear witness to this focus with the release of three variations on the brand's favorite ones : minute repeaters and chronographs. For instance, in this flurry of success, there is one type of watch that dramatically stands out among their collection. The brand's chronographs with perpetual calendars seem to have a life of their own. Nowadays, the ref.5270 fills in where many other numbered references have led the way before, starting in the early 1940s. Listing them would take a thick history book but one need only consider the stratospheric prices reached at auction by those vintage timepieces to get a sense of their actual importance. All Patek Philippe chronographs with perpetual calendar are absolutely central in the collector's world, a Grail even for many. While with many a watch brand, such a combination might have felt a little light in the complication department, since they're busy releasing over-the-top creations, Patek Philippe still rightfully so considers it a grande complication. So the 5270 might be regarded as a sort of masterpiece within a collection that certainly includes many others.
Golden rebirth
The Ref. 5270 Chronograph Perpetual Calendar has been previously available in a platinum version with an opaline gilt dial and a rose-gold version with a gold drop-shaped-links bracelet. Now, the manufacture is enriching its current collection with a new interpretation of this grand complication. Lately, there's been a remarked comeback of a type of gold that had been left aside but once was integral to watchmaking : yellow gold is indeed an elegant outfit for this timeless watch. In 2018, Patek Philippe had altered yet again several details of their iconic timepiece Such updates are few and far between but are an essential tool to keep the collection fit, lively and at the top of its desirability. There is no point, even for such an established and successful brand, in releasing the same designs over and over again. So the 5270P and 5270R showcased new features such as a concave bezel, which lessens the height perception of the case.
Fundamental fonts
Also, the flared-up gadrooned lugs are made of two separate, adjacent curves. Major changes also took place on the dial, with renewed fonts. While that may be a trivial fact anywhere else, this is a key issue with Patek Philippe Chronograph Perpetual Calendars, because they say a lot in writing : a tachymeter scale and an elaborate minute track, three sub-dials including small seconds and date, and of course day and month in rectangular apertures. The new yellow gold 5270 comes with a silvery opaline dial with applied hour markers and leaf-shaped hands in yellow gold, making it perfectly legible. The displays of the perpetual calendar are tastefully balanced, with an analog date at 6 o’clock, as well as two round apertures for the day/night indicator and the leap year cycle, not to mention the moon-phase aperture. Sand-blasted hands are assigned to the chronograph functions.
Inner class
One of Patek Philippe's points of pride lies inside the 41 mm case. The hand-wound caliber CH 29-535 PS Q was the first chronograph movement with a perpetual calendar developed and crafted entirely by the manufacture. Its traditional architecture with horizontal clutch and column wheel is complemented with six patented innovations and an extremely thin calendar mechanism, comprised of 182 parts and 1.65 mm thick. The movement is revealed by the sapphire-crystal case back but the watch is delivered with an interchangeable solid back in yellow gold. The new Ref. 5270J-001 is worn on a hand-stitched matte chocolate brown alligator strap with large square scales and a yellow-gold fold-over clasp. It joins the previous collection with the platinum and rose-gold versions.
