Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time 5164A-001 Patek Philippe Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me, Tmosso at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions concerning this watch. Today, we discuss an end of the line reference, a much loved model that was something of a breakthrough for the Patek Philippe Aquanaut when it bowed in 2011. But you can recall that in 2011, the arrival of this, the 5164A, was a bit of a revolution for Patek's junior sports watch. Often in the shadow of the Narles, it was the arrival of a dedicated travel time variant that took the junior watch out of the shadow of its patrician forebear. So the watch I have right here also represents one from the last of the line. This is still a 5164A-001, but in spite of the same old reference number, this features the late hacking caliber 26330. So it was a revival of mechanical refinement before this steel variant was discontinued in sunset for the 2024 model year. So this last and best of the line is 40.8 millimeters in diameter and steel, 10.3 millimeters thick, and from lug tip to lug tip, 47.5 millimeters with a 21 millimeter spacing in between the lugs. With rode on my wrist, which is 16 centimeters in circumference, it wears nicely. There is some stiffness to the strap. We'll look at that in a moment, but the watch wears well enough on a 16 centimeter circumference wrist. And taking a look at where the lugs themselves are, I think you could wear this watch on a wrist as small as 14. It is flat and does have a sloped flank, so it should fit underneath any dress cuff, no matter how tight. The strap is rubber, but Patek Philippe calls it composite. We'll play along. It's been a signature of the Aquanaut since the first model debuted back in 1997, and to be perfectly honest, though variants with bracelets exist, they never look quite right. So we have this Aquanaut cut as Patek describes it. You'll see the same sort of geosphere on the dial and it's a fairly stiff strap. As you can see, it conforms to the shape of the case, which means it's sort of pinned against the flank of the case. So you can't pull it straight down out of the lugs. And that's what I meant when I say it's got a bit of stiffness. Now on the underside, we have many pre-scored sections, allowing you to size this precisely. This is an uncut strap. We're going to help you with that. If you buy the watch to make sure you've got the right size, and if we mess up, we will cut a new strap and send it to you. We will get this right for you. Taking a look at the clasp, you can see it's got a calatrava cross on the outside and then little elements, the calatrava cross on the inside, double deployant, twin trigger release, so it cannot pop open inadvertently. Taking a look at the case, a combination of satin and polish, so that the elements are set apart from each other. We do have a little pusher adjuster here that's used to correct the calendar, though you can drive the calendar using the local hour hand. That is part of the concept of this travel time watch, which can actually drive the date forward or backwards as you travel East or West across the international date line. You'll also note that because the watch uses two 12-hour format hands, you can superimpose them when you don't want to see the second time zone. You have home and local AM-PM dials, so you know whether it's day or night where you are and where you are not. You can have two 12-hour hands and still get that 24-hour distinction. The nice thing about the 5164 has always been that the integration of the travel time triggers, they are so perfectly integrated into the case band that you can almost forget that this watch isn't a simple Nautilus or a simple Aquanaut or a simple symmetrical watch of any type. It's actually got these triggers and if you didn't know that they were there, you might miss them. We do have a screw down crown and though this watch went out with Patek advising that they are all 30 meters water resistant, the reality is the 5164, like the 5167, has always been a 120 meter watch. So while now all Patek models are rated 30 meters, unless otherwise advertised, the reality is that with the screw down crown and well-sealed travel time triggers, it's 120 meter watch. Let's take a look at the dial, which features a lot of luminescence. You can see both the numerals and the indices outboard are luminescent, which is great because you can't help but recognize the time. It is worth mentioning that the secondary time zone does not have a luminescent hand, but other than that, you will find no shortage of functionality. Now a feature long absent on Patek Philippe watches, hacking seconds, it's quietly found its way into the lineup over the last few years. The arrival of this base caliber, which replaced the 324, started back in 2019. That's when we saw the first of the 26 330s and so you can appreciate we do have a proper hacking seconds function now. So if that was keeping you from buying a Patek Philippe, you're out of excuses. Turning it all over now, you can see we have a screw-in case back and we have that caliber 26 330. It's free sprung, six position adjusted, has a four hertz beat rate. You can see it pivots on 29 joules. It has an anti-magnetic silicon hairspring. And what a lot of folks don't realize about Patek Spiromax hairspring is that it's not just anti-magnetic, but though flat, it breathes concentrically like an overcoil. So it's positionally agnostic, which allows Patek to now rate its watches as no worse than minus two plus one second, or I should say minus one plus two seconds per 24 hours. They used to have a quirky rating where they'd say no worse than minus three plus two. I don't know why they favored time loss initially, but it is now a minus one plus two. And this watch falls within the scope of that production. To be truthful, I think every Patek watch made in the last 15 to 20 years can meet the new standard, but this would have fallen within that scope. Taking a quick look at the movement, it's a nice medley of hand and mechanical finish. It's a unidirectional winder. And if you get really close, you can see it uses ceramic bearings for greater efficiency. I mentioned unidirectional winding because it has been found on the wrist in practical tests to be more efficient than bi-directional winding. On a winder, it's the same. On the wrist, it's unidirectional. Patek's gyromax style free sprung balance makes the watch both more shock resistant and easier to adjust precisely. Let's see both sides of the movement. I will opine that the balance side is more exciting, but it is all quite comely. Six position adjusted with the Patek Philippe seal, a very good timekeeper. Just about the only thing about it that's not extraordinary is the 45 hour power reserve. But if this is your daily driver, you won't mind. And on the dial side, the hands, as well as the numerals, white golds, they will never tarnish or oxidize. All of this externally in stainless steel. Reach out to team also at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.