Impact is something that Patek Philippe knows how to achieve. At the recent Art of Watches Grand Exhibition 2017 held in New York in July, the venerable watchmaker unveiled nine special edition men’s and ladies’ watches that attest to the depth and breadth of its expertise. The highlight of this nonet is undoubtedly the World Time Minute Repeater Ref. 5531 New York 2017 Special Edition – which manages to be a summary and the epitome of everything that the marque stands for.
A unique combination of two complications – a minute repeater and a universal/world time function – the Ref. 5531 sets itself further apart from all other such examples by chiming not the home time, as is standard, but the infinitely more complicated local time. That is to say, if a New York City Ref. 5531 was taken to Paris – set there as its new ‘home’ – the repeater which chime Paris. Head to Tokyo and re-calibrate, and it’ll ring out for Tokyo. This fiendishly complicated feat required the creation of the new self-winding 462-part Calibre R27 HU movement, and countless hours spent perfecting it.
This is Patek Philippe in rare form. In both senses of the word. Only ten examples of Ref. 5531 will be produced (priced at US$561, 341/RM1.62 million), in two variants of five each. One is ‘New York By Day’ and the other ‘New York By Night’, cloisonné enamel depictions of the Big Apple that took two weeks for the completion of each dial – another first for a Patek Philippe minute repeater. Circling around the Manhattan skyline is the 24-hour disc in 18 karat gold and city disc, lacquered in opaline silvery white – which New Yorkers will say is proof that the world does indeed revolves around their city.
