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AIR May 2019

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The performance-optimised 5212A<br />

Caliber “ 26-330, which premieres in this<br />

timepiece, is the apex of reliability<br />

”<br />

All images:<br />

Patek Philippe 5212A<br />

Calatrava Weekly Calendar<br />

one-of-a-kind Ref. 2512, which was first<br />

created by the brand in 1955.<br />

The 2512 was actually also produced<br />

in steel, and this was a feather in<br />

Patek’s cap at the time – for most,<br />

limited production methods of the day<br />

made steel too complicated to work<br />

with. The brand’s coveted sports watch,<br />

the Gérald Genta-designed Nautilus,<br />

was a steel stronghold at that time.<br />

With a present day scarcity of those<br />

steel Caltravas to satisfy collectors,<br />

the <strong>2019</strong> iteration will likely be in<br />

high demand. (In a casual, post-<br />

Baselworld video recap, Hodinkee<br />

founder and respected watch savant<br />

Ben Clymer revealed, “I can tell you,<br />

based on feedback from a few retail<br />

friends, that the demand for this<br />

watch is ‘bananas.’”)<br />

The 1955 original had a large, 46mmsizing,<br />

and a sign of the modernity of<br />

this travel-friendly interpretation is its<br />

more restrained 40mm case size.<br />

Remaining with aesthetics, the dial<br />

is worth further inspection. From<br />

centre-out, the four facets indicate the<br />

day, week number (up to 53), date and<br />

month, while the indexes are, in fact,<br />

blackened 18k white gold. “Stacking<br />

the five hands [hours, minutes,<br />

sweeping seconds, day and week] was<br />

a technical challenge,” admits Philip<br />

Barat, Head of Watch Development at<br />

Patek Philippe.<br />

The truly modern element is the<br />

Calatrava’s all-new new function for<br />

calendar watches: a semi-integrated<br />

mechanism which, in addition to the<br />

day of the week and the date, displays<br />

the current week number.<br />

The latter detail holds more<br />

functionality than it may first seem.<br />

The timepiece could have particular<br />

appeal, for instance, in numericallyinclined<br />

cultures such as Sweden where<br />

weeks – among other measurements<br />

– are referred to by number. (For<br />

orientation, this month’s edition of <strong>AIR</strong><br />

was printed in Week 18 of the year).<br />

Meanwhile, the need for a 53 rd week<br />

inclusion is due to an additional week<br />

occuring every five to six years; the<br />

Calatrava’s timely release date of 2020 (a<br />

year when the extra week pops up) will<br />

cater to this occasional calendar quirk.<br />

Powering the timepiece is the<br />

5212A / Caliber 26-330, which has a<br />

minimum of 35 and a maximum of 45<br />

hour power reserve, and also caters to<br />

unidirectional winding.<br />

Barat describes the “performanceoptimised”<br />

movement which premieres<br />

in this timepiece as “the apex of<br />

reliability.” A friction spring, just one<br />

of the changes, “reduces seconds-hand<br />

chatter,” he explains. “Friction costs<br />

torque and energy.”<br />

In all, it’s an idiosyncratic release<br />

from one of the masters of the dress<br />

watch, and though historically inspired,<br />

the <strong>2019</strong> Calatrava is a bold direction<br />

for the fabled brand (which, along<br />

with Audemars Piguet and Vacheron<br />

Constantin, is among the ‘Holy Trinity’<br />

of luxury watchmakers).<br />

Granted, the omission of precious<br />

materials means that the new steel<br />

Calatrava may not be the rarest of<br />

them all, but it’s easy to see how<br />

this charming Patek release has left<br />

industry observers ‘week’ at the knees.<br />

33

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