Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph 5270G-001

Investment watch. A coup for the serious collector. Work of art. Innovative invention. Reference point. Game changer. The Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph is a watch of many faces, so to speak. This Patek Philippe Perpetual calendar chronograph 5270G-001 has a Delft blue and white stingray strap that draws the eye irresistibly. It's quite the departure from the usual sober black and brown alligator straps found on most editions of this pioneering luxury timepiece. If it didn't seem like sacrilege when talking about such an exquisite luxury watch, you could almost say the strap brings a little playfulness to the party.
The Patek Philippe 5270G-001 is more than just a watch. It's an invention in its own right. To put it into perspective, we need to rewind to 1941 with the creation of the Patek reference 1518. Europe was in the middle of the Second World War but that didn't stop Patek Philippe from creating horological history by designing the first perpetual calendar chronograph . To combine a chronograph with a perpetual calendar was, and still is, considered a stroke of genius. The concept of a stopwatch with a function that can display the correct date for 200 years was simply unheard of during the first half of the 20th Century. The 1518 was considerably slimmer than the 5270G-001 edition: 35 mm to 41 mm is a significant leap. However, it's worth noting that the 35 mm (if you can find one) sits proud on the wrist, giving it more presence and making it appear larger.
Fans of the Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph include Eric Clapton, who owned a reference 2499 for 10 years and then sold it at auction for a record £2.3 million. The 2499 is generally considered to be one of the finest watches ever created but is arguably not significantly different from the 1518 at first glance. Both feature Arabic markers and sit in the same case.
The real leap came with the later editions. These get wider, 37 mm and up. Patek's fourth series returned to the vintage styling but added contemporary features like the sapphire glass and display back, raising the game yet again. 1986 saw the birth of series 3970 and the 3971. Rare editions had sapphire display backs. In 1995, a split-second chronograph with perpetual calendar was released. The black-dial 5004 was regarded as the piece de resistance of this iteration. It wasn't the first time a Patek edition with a black dial had been released, but the combination of black and vintage styling made it a highly desirable collectors piece.
That's a lot of history, and it explains why the release of the 5270G was so hotly anticipated in 2011. This new perpetual chronograph debuted 70 years after the 1518: but the appearance of the dial has obviously been passed down the generations. It displays the day and month in apertures at 12. The date and moon phase are indicated at 6. There's a 30-minute chronograph counter at 3, and seconds at 9. There are day and night indicators on either side of the moon phase date indicator. To save space and make the dial more legible, Patek Philippe also chose to incorporate the leap year indicator in the day and night apertures. There's also a tachymeter scale running around the seconds track. Many collectors consider the 001 to be the most collectible version of the 5270G due to the fact that the seconds track is not bent around the moon phase indicator, as was the case with later 'chinned' models.
The Delft blue of the strap chimes nicely with the silver dial and round, white gold case. The dial has numeral hour markers, and hour, minute, and chronograph hands. Behind the dial is the manually-wound caliber CH 29-535 PS Q column-wheel chronograph, one of Patek's very best movements. Water resistant to 30 m, it has a 65-hour power reserve.
The Patek Philippe Perpetual calendar chronograph 5270G-001is a grail watch. It's one of the finest Patek Philippe luxury watches ever created and one that you can actually wear should you wish to, rather than sentencing it to a lifetime of being displayed in a box. It would be worth selling several other luxury watches in your collection to own this one timepiece.
Image Credit – officialwatches.com vedere di piu replicas rolex e Rolex Milgauss