Patek Philippe Pagoda 5500R-001 Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me, Tim Osso at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions concerning this watch. This watch was launched in 1997 in an addition of 500 pieces in rose gold to celebrate the opening of Patek Philippe's new manufacture building. The watch is the Patek 5500-001 Pagoda and launched in 1997. It says as much on the reverse, but the roots go back much further to the reference 2441 Tour Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower of 1948. And so Patek doesn't technically do homage watches, but this is getting incredibly close to that genre. So Le Tour Eiffel, a lovely watch in its day, now a bit more sophisticated. And there were 2,000 of the Pagoda 5500 in 1997, 1100 in yellow gold, 500 in rose, 250 in white golden, and 150 in platinum. All of them were and are chronometer movements. So we'll talk about that in a moment. It is bigger than the historic piece from the forties, not big though, 26.5 from side to side. I measure at 40.9 from lug to lug, 9.3 thick, and it has a 20 millimeter spacing between the lugs. Each watch, in addition to having a different case metal, has a different dial color. This one is silver white. It's an easy watch to wear, very compact. Most form watches were larger than their rated size because of the curvature of this one and the unusual lofted shape across the wrist. It actually wears true to size. This is an easy watch to wear. I'd compare it to a 38 millimeter round watch and it is flat enough to fit under a cuff. This is a watch for him, for her, for a wrist as small as 13 and a half centimeters circumference. We have a strap, which is brown with some red undertones. You can see it is rectangular scale alligator leather. It's calfskin on the bottom and it has a sheer cut edge lacquered for refinement with a monotone stitch. So we have this brown, dark brown with a little bit of an undertone of burgundy to it. A spade style Patek Philippe matching rose gold pin buckle. Taking a look at the profile, there's some fingerprints here, but it's a beautiful concave, a truly graceful arcing form. The Tarifel was a lovely piece when it was on the market and it emphasized Patek Philippe's long running fascination with graceful non-round cases. This watch also features a cambered non-round crystal, difficult to achieve water resistance, even dress watch water resistance with a crystal like this, but Patek does rate this at 30 meters. And so it is very legitimate in that regard. Calatrava cross, the logo of the manufacturer on the crown. We'll talk about caliber 215 in a moment. You can see here, we've got what Patek would describe as an opaline silver white dial. So it's a light frosted metallic grain, not a directional sunburst. We have a small seconds with a chemin de fer or railroad track. We have the same for the minutes, stylized vertically arrayed Roman numerals, including a watchmakers four and leaf or style hands. Inside the case, Patek Philippe, caliber 215, manual wind, four Hertz, 18 joules, 44 hour power reserve, free sprung with Jaramax style balance, five position adjusted with Geneva Hallmark signature and decoration. It's a good looking movement, a COSC certified Swiss chronometer and yes, all of the 5500 Pagodas featured caliber 215 manual wind movements that were certified as chronometers. And so prior to the modern era, and by that, I mean the 2010s and beyond, Patek would occasionally certify chronometers and that continued right up to the early to mid 2000s with some of their tourbillon watches. So this is a very distinguished piece in spite of its simplicity. If you want to know what a 215 looks like, just go over to Patek's website and check it out or look at one of my other videos with a display case back 215 watch. Just rest assured, it's a good timekeeper. It's beautifully decorated. It is a Patek movement, albeit a very simple and thin one through and through. So reach out to Tommaso at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.