Watch Selection - Reference 5170J by Patek Philippe
WORLDTEMPUS - 23 December 2010
Naturally, my favorite element of this watch is its movement, and one of the reasons for that is simple: Patek Philippe actually debuted its first full in-house chronograph movement late last fall in a ladies' watch christened Ladies First.
Four months later, at Baselworld 2010, the men's edition followed. As one might expect, it was fully clothed in traditional Patek Philippe dress: a classic, yellow gold, 39 mm Calatrava model whose appearance is based on a design from the 1940s. The fact that Patek Philippe - the brand considered the reference in good taste regarding classic watchmaking - has kept its new men's watch to 39 mm is telling. Patek Philippe obviously expects this size to remain the classic for generations to come. The new movement is already justifiably a classic.
Manually wound chronograph Caliber CH 29-535 PS incorporates six patented innovations and numerous technical improvements over Patek Philippe's previous base chronograph caliber, which was based on Nouvelle Lemania technology. These include hacking seconds, a 28,800 vph balance frequency, and a traditional horizontal clutch. "We wanted this to be a fully traditional movement," Laurent Junod, who is in charge of Patek Philippe's U.S. service center, explained during the launch of Ladies First.
The running of the chronograph is, however, something completely new and rather unique. The 269 components making up Caliber 29-535 PS were conceived to allow the sweep second counter also act as the running second hand, precipitating a virtually unheard-of state for such a movement. It boasts a guaranteed 65 hours of power reserve with the chronograph running and more than 70 hours if the timer is not in action.
Naturally, Caliber CH 29-535 PS is christened with the new Patek Philippe seal, which fulfills all the criteria of the Seal of Geneva and more.