Patek Philippe s MASTERFUL Complicated Watches

Patek Philippe is the most prolific complicated watchmaker in history, so today we've decided to get together a full spread of Patek Philippe complications in order to showcase the breadth of complications the brand has made over the years from vintage to modern. Things are about to get really complicated. First up, we have two manually wound chronographs. Manually wound chronographs are incredibly hard to create properly because there's hundreds of hand-finished components that need to be executed properly. It's one thing to make a beautiful movement, it's another to make a functional, robust movement, and Patek has sort of mastered the intersection of both of those priorities. The first is the reference 5170, which has been popular in the early 2000s and was phased out of the collections relatively recently. The 5170 is traditional design with a two-register display and tachymeter scale outbound, but what makes this watch so incredibly salient in modern times is its slightly sportier modern proportions, and in this case, a baguette dial. I think that it's very rare that you can execute diamonds on a men's watch incredibly tastefully, and this is one of the examples. And when you look at this dial up close, it's clear that Patek has masterfully set these baguettes onto the dial, adding a little bit of flair to an otherwise classic and reserved design language. When you flip the watch over, you're met by one of the most beautiful movements on the market. As we move along to the reference 5172, this is the slightly more heritage-inspired, stripped-down alternative to the flashier 5170. We have syringe hands, we have Arabic numerals, we have Tastitandi engraved pushers, three steps on each of the lugs, a stepped bezel. This watch is incredibly riddled with vintage details, and yet, we still have modern proportions, wears quite broad on the wrist, looks sporty, and yet, if you were to place this on an alligator strap instead of this sort of denim leather that it comes with, you'd have a watch that could be dressed up just as easily. And once again, we have the same beautiful, manually-wound movement, and I think that Patek, among very few others, manages to master the complication. As we move along, we're now going to highlight annual calendars. The annual calendar complication was released in the 1990s in order to bridge the gap between simpler Calatrava time-only models and the more complicated grand complications that we're gonna talk about a little later on. So we have three different annual calendars here, which I think give three different flavors of the annual calendar complication. The first is the reference 5205, which is one of the more popular modern iterations. This features an incredibly modernist case design that Patek Philippe has presented with this model and a few other examples, and we'll look at one other one right after this. 5205 has a concave bezel and pierced lugs. It's incredibly modernist. And yet, when you look on the dial, everything is incredibly reserved and traditional. We have a fumet dial in this particular case, aperture displays for the calendar functions, which keeps the dial simple and not cluttered. And it's also nice to see that Patek is sort of experimenting with more adventurous dial finishes. This isn't a solid dial, this is a fumet dial that fades from almost a blue to a black on the extreme. And I think that that allows this watch to take on many different personalities, no matter what strap you're pairing it with. This is an incredibly beautiful watch, and I think 5205 is often a first Patek for many, many people. Along a similar vein, a lot of the design DNA that we saw in the 5205 in terms of calendar layout, just a little bit more complication, a flyback chronograph. Adds some thickness to the watch. If you want something sportier, this particular steel iteration has a beautiful green dial and also comes paired to its stainless steel bracelet. Finally, we have a very modern release from Patek Philippe, one that I didn't understand at first, but there's a lot of details on this reference, the 5326, that I actually think are really, really cool and hard to recognize without handling in person. This piece blends an incredibly modern design language and aesthetic with many details that made Patek Philippe famous. And I want to explain what I mean by that. First of all, when we look at the case flanks of this annual calendar, you'll notice that there's a hop nail pattern, one of the details that Patek Philippe popularized. I think it's a cool detail to find. We have the same heritage syringe hands that we saw on the 5172 before. This time, they have almost a caked patina look to them. It has a very interesting warmth to it, especially against this textured gray dial, another unique dial finish that we don't see quite often. This piece has some added functionality. It's not just an annual calendar. It's an annual calendar with travel time complication. And that makes these pieces incredibly popular for world travelers and collectors alike. We also have a moon phase and a date at six o'clock with sub-seconds. And I think that this gives you a really nice blend of complication and also simplicity. As we flip it over, this is a micro-rotor movement with a platinum rotor, which gives a little bit more mass for winding purposes and is incredibly beautifully decorated, fills the case back. I think this is an incredibly well-executed watch. I really didn't get it when I first saw the photos and handling it in person, I have a completely new appreciation for this degree of finishing and details. Continuing with the travel time theme, we have two more travel time watches. The first comes from the Aquanaut collection. This is one of the most popular watches that Patek Philippe makes, reference 5164A. Integrated into the Aquanaut collection, which was presented as a counterpart to the Nautilus collection. We'll look at a Nautilus a little later on. The 5164 has that same travel time functionality, this time controlled with two different pushers on the left side. This is one of the easiest watches to travel with, and if you only need to track two time zones, the 5164 is often the first Patek Philippe that I recommend people buy if they like sportier pieces. Moving along, this is another watch that I consider to be a massive sleeper. The Patek Philippe reference 7234, which I'm currently wearing. This is part of the Pilot Calatrava family, but this particular piece is notable because it's only 37 1⁄2 millimeters. Most of the Calatrava Pilot watches are quite large and a little bit extreme, but this particular piece at 37 1⁄2 millimeters, I think gives you the same sporty appearance that you get with those larger watches, but on mid to large-sized wrists, I think it looks quite elegant, actually. This particular piece is a little bit rarer than most of the larger alternatives, and with a lovely brown dial, I think it plays incredibly well with the light. It looks refined, and yet it also looks sporty. We have that twin travel time functionality on the left side of the dial for on-the-fly adjustments and tracking of multiple time zones. The next place we're headed is the world time. This is one of the complications that Patek Philippe really helped popularize in development with Louis Cartier, the brain behind the modern world time. This particular piece sits at the top of the world time leaderboard. It's a reference 5131, which we've talked about a little bit in the past. It has a beautiful, hand-painted, claisonnais enamel dial. Incredibly hard to execute. Only a couple craftspeople at Patek Philippe know how to do this work or are capable of doing this work. It has a hand-painted finish and also hand-applied gold frames that help define the outline of a sort of world time motif at the center of the dial. Outbound, you have all of the city displays and also a pusher that adjusts what the local time is currently, so you can quickly change where you're tracking the time. With a simple press of the button, and it jumps the hour hand to match wherever that current local time would be. So well-executed, incredibly beautiful, showcases Patek Philippe's mastery, both of visual art and also the mechanical art. I think that this watch is a massive sleeper and still trades far below what it should be, considering the rarity and complexity of this watch. Next, we have the perpetual calendar. Now, the perpetual calendar is the more complicated alternative to the annual calendar. These watches do not need to be adjusted except about once per century. They represent the pinnacle of calendar complications. I have two different perpetual calendars selected here. The first is the reference 5320. In this case, in white gold, this is another sleeper reference. It's an inline perpetual calendar, meaning that we have apertures at the top of the dial that display the day and month. Then we have the date at six o'clock with the moon phase with a leap year indicator down at the bottom of the dial, an incredibly simple, almost lacquer-looking white cream dial in this case. They made this in a couple of different colors. And I think that these pieces are vastly underappreciated. We see that same three-step display that we saw in the 5172. We also see the same syringe hands from the 5172. And I kind of see these two pieces as siblings of one another, stylistically. Same numerals, same handset, same case design. I think it works incredibly well occupying that sort of vintage-inspired but contemporary feel. And again, we have that exhibition case back showcasing a beautiful automatic winding movement within. If you want a classic perpetual counter, that's when we go to the 3940. 3940 is certainly a little bit more cluttered than the 5320. 36 millimeters in diameter, eight and a half millimeters thick, incredibly svelte on the wrist. This particular piece is executed in white gold. And we have a classic three-register display that we see across perpetual counters in the industry. This was the first that Patek released with this layout, and it's become an instant classic because of its perfect proportions, elegant finishing, and timeless classic appeal. This is one of the best watches Patek has ever made, in my opinion. And if you want complicated Patek Philippe, this has to be on the short list. Finally, no Patek Philippe highlight would be complete without at least one Nautilus. And this is the reference 5712. The 5711 Nautilus, the time-only variant of this particular watch, was the watch that really triggered the integrated bracelet trend of the modern era. It's completely altered the face of 21st century watch collecting. And while I love the 5711, I personally prefer the 5712, which has a little bit more exuberance, a little more complication, and, in my opinion, has a vastly improved movement that takes the level of watchmaking of this particular family to the next level. Whereas the 5711 has a centrally winding automatic movement, this piece has a 240-based movement, which is what we also see in the 3940. It's a micro-rotor movement, a little bit higher performance. And when we look at the dial side, we have a sub-seconds, we have the date, we have moon phase, and we have power reserve. And there's a sort of playful layout of these complications sort of scattered across the dial in an exciting way that looks intentional, but also a little bit whimsical. And I think that that combination makes the 5712 a little bit charming. This is clearly an elevated sports watch. And that was the idea that Patek Philippe was going for when they released the Nautilus. They were no longer competing with a quartz market. They were trying to position themselves as a luxury offering that was selling a completely different vision for what watchmaking was really all about. And so for that, I have tremendous respect for the reference 5712. So there you have it, a full range of Patek Philippe complicated watches. This runs the gamut of chronographs, calendar functionalities, world time, travel time, and more. And I think that if you're looking to experience Patek Philippe properly, the best way to do that is to explore complications. That's really where the brand has cut their teeth, and it's where they've completely pulled ahead. Patek Philippe is undoubtedly the master of complications, and we're very, very excited to offer a full range of complicated Patek watches at analogshift.com. Go check it out, and we'll see you next time. Damn Mark, that was, that was complicated. Woo! Onto the next one. Can we do Calatrava's next time, please?