A company anniversary should not only be a retrospective, it should also look ahead. This objective was fulfilled with the Patek Philippe World Time Moon. This commemorative timepiece combines two complications that stand for tradition and innovation as the entire center is now occupied by a large-format moon-phase display. To commemorate the manufacture's 175th anniversary, The World Time Moon will be crafted in a limited edition
of 1750 pieces, of which 450 as the diamond-adorned Ref. 7175 ladies' version and 1300 in the somewhat larger Ref. 5575 men's version.
Conventional moon-phase displays are based on a characteristically shaped dial aperture. It exposes part of a disk with two round stylized moons that rotates about its own axis once in the course of two lunar months. Accordingly, the changing face of the earth's satellite is comparatively small. To achieve a significantly larger and more attractive depiction, Patek Philippe developed a mechanism for the World Time Moon that showcases the moon-phase display in the center of the dial. It is composed of two extremely thin, superposed glass disks. The bottom one is decorated with the nocturnal sky using an innovative metallization process. It shows a richly detailed and very large rendering of the moon. This disk performs one complete revolution every 29.53 days. The upper half of the second stationary disk just above is metallized with a precisely
calculated, heart-shaped contour. This mask exposes only the visible portion of the moon on the rotating disk and covers the area that in reality is darkened by the earth's shadow.
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The new caliber 240 HU LU was developed explicitly to achieve a fusion of the world's 24 time zones with the lunar cycle. It is based on an ultra-thin self-winding movement powered by a 22K gold minirotor totally recessed in the plate.
The World Time Moon is presented in a round case, inspired by the Calatrava style, is made of 18K white gold for men and 18K rose gold for women. Both models have a solid-gold case back with the engraving “PATEK PHILIPPE GENEVE 175e Anniversaire 1839 – 2014”.On the dial side, Patek Philippe created an legible display of all 24 time zones with emphasis on local time, combined with an unusually large, richly detailed moon-phase display on dials with a diameter of about 35 mm. In contrast to the World Time watches in the current collection, the World Time Moon anniversary model features an innovative local time hour hand. It recalls the Southern Cross constellation and rounds out the astronomical triom earth, moon, and stars.
Another special facet of this limited anniversary edition: as a tribute to Patek Philippe’s notable heritage, Central European Time is represented by the city of Geneva instead of Paris.
The men's model, with a diameter of 39.8 mm, is slightly larger than the 38-mm ladies' version. The latter features a bezel that sparkles with the fire of 70 brilliant-cut diamonds. The hand-stitched alligator strap with large square scales is secured with a fold-over clasp in gold to match the case, with the engraving “PATEK PHILIPPE 1839 – 2014”. The strap is shiny black for the men's model and shiny beige for ladies.
