It was a relatively low-key year for Patek Philippe at Watches & Wonders 2025. On the technical front, aside from a very complicated table clock (the Reference 27000M-001), the main highlight was a quadruple complication that was first seen two years ago, while a new eight-day movement is a notable but quiet affair by the brand’s standards. There are a lot of new options, though, and refinement across current collections: the Cubitus is back in a new, smaller size; the Twenty~4 has received its first complication; a few existing complications have received warm and relaxed expressions; and the classic Reference 96 Calatrava has returned. It is a year of subtlety and refinement for Patek Philippe, and comes at a time when it seems collectors are yearning for just that—a moment of calm in a chaotic world. Here are a few of the highlights.
Reference 5308G-001 Quadruple Complication
The technical highlight of the year is something we have seen before, albeit in extremely limited fashion. In 2023, Patek Philippe released the 5308P-010 as a special, 15-piece edition for its Grand Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. Equipped with four coveted horological complications—a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, and split-seconds chronograph (the last one counts as two)—the 5308 now takes its place as a regular offering in the form of the 5308G-001 (RM5.9 million).
The 5308 is an evolution of the 5208 Triple Complication, which it replaces; that was launched in 2011 and featured a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, and chronograph (without the split). Adding a split-seconds mechanism is about as simple as one would expect—that is, not very. As is often the case with ambitious technical watchmaking, power is a problem—the addition of a whole other seconds hand is not a trivial task for a watch movement. As such, the 5308’s Calibre R CHR 27 PS QI has two new patents, both to do with increasing the efficiency of the split-seconds mechanism: a specially shaped, backlash-compensating clutch wheel manufactured via the LIGA process that removes the need for the conventional, energy-sapping friction spring that stabilises the chronograph seconds hand; and an isolating mechanism for the splits-seconds hand that ensures it consumes no power when stopped. It also boasts of a smaller barrel arbour, which accommodates a beefier mainspring. The micro-rotor is now platinum, for increased winding efficiency. All in, one can expect a minimum of 38 hours of power, which increases to 48 hours if the chronograph is not running. Calibre R CHR 27 PS QI has 80 extra components over its predecessor, increasing the total count to 799; despite this, the movement’s total thickness has increased by less than 2mm.
The minute repeater, meanwhile, is of a classical two-gong makeup, while the perpetual calendar mechanism carries forward two of Patek Philippe’s existing patents for the instantaneous jumps of its aperture displays for day, date, and month.
The timepiece is presented in a white gold case 42mm in diameter and, at 17.7mm thick, is not for the faint of wrist—but then, neither is a grand complication quite like this one. The version released in 2023 had a salmon dial for a vintage vibe; the new version has one in sunburst ice blue for something cooler and more contemporary.
Reference 6196P-001 Calatrava 
For the past few years, there has been something of a gap in the Patek Philippe collection—a hole in the shape of the Reference 96, which is the brand’s most iconic lineage. Released in 1932, it was its first serially produced wristwatch, the first to have a proper reference number, and the first Calatrava—and it marked the start of the brand’s modern era under Stern family stewardship. It was then, as it is now, the quintessential dress watch; some would even say it’s the underlying blueprint for every dress watch since.
Before this year, the last Patek Philippe timepiece to truly embody the Reference 96 legend was the Reference 5196. It was released in 2004, and marked a rather unfortunate period for the classic dress watch. The trend at the time had scaled sharply towards larger, flashier timepieces, and every major brand had followed suit. The traditional diameter of the Reference 96 Calatrava was around 31mm; the 5196 was ballooned to 37mm. By the late 2010s, it was actually something of a hold-out—it had become quite difficult to find a men’s dress watch smaller than 40mm.
The 5196 certainly lived up to expectations, design-wise—it was elegant, slender in all the right places, and had an exquisite, understated finish, from polished markers to satin-brushed flanks—but it had an unquestionable flaw that could be inconsequential or could be unforgivable, depending on where one falls on the scale of horological fastidiousness. It still used Calibre 215 PS, a classic hand-wound Patek Philippe movement that was perfectly performant—but it dated back to the 1970s and, as such, was designed to fit watches that were much smaller than 37mm. The biggest issue this presented was that the small seconds indicator was, to the estimation of many, much too close to the centre of the dial—something that, once observed, could be very difficult to ‘un-see’. It would also have meant that the movement looked ridiculously small if seen within the case, which is probably why the 5196 had a closed caseback.
The 5196 was discontinued in 2021, shortly before Reference 6119 was introduced—a fine dress watch in its own right, but between the railroad track-style minute markers and the Clous de Paris bezel, not quite in the Reference 96 mould. But it did bring something very interesting: it hosted the new Calibre 30-255 PS, a modern Patek Philippe development that was a clear and deliberate effort to create a hand-wound movement that would satisfy the lofty requirements of today’s watch collector. Its twin barrels supply up to 65 hours of power, and it is equipped with a stop seconds function—both improvements upon its predecessor. It is also much larger, measuring 31mm across as opposed to the sub-22mm of the 215 PS, making it a much better fit for contemporary dress watch sizing; the 6119 is 39mm in diameter.
It took more than three years, but the 5196 now has a true successor in the form of Reference 6196P-001 (RM223,800) and is equipped with that same, modern movement. It is a harmonious iteration of the 5196 and shares many of the same design traits—small seconds subdial (which has crept back downwards), faceted hour markers, dauphine-style hands, and largely unadorned rose-gilt opaline dial—that make it quite the ringer for the Bauhaus sensibilities of the Reference 96. It is 38mm in diameter, and a touch thicker at slightly more than 9mm in depth. Some would say this makes it more proportionate. Others would say they wished it had gone smaller instead, to something like 36mm, as even more vintage-accurate sizing is coming back into fashion. One thing to agree on, though—the 6196 has a display caseback, which is something every Patek Philippe deserves.
Reference 7128 Cubitus
It has been about eight months since Patek Philippe launched the Cubitus, and the dust is nowhere near fully settled. An outside-the-box collection was always going to be controversial, but the way the Cubitus did it was something else altogether—but then again, it is quite possibly the most daring move made by a watch brand in recent memory. The Cubitus is not just a square watch, it is square in a way we do not really see: totally committed to straight-sided symmetry, evenly tempered lengths, and unabashed, angular corners. Every other iconic square or rectangular watch will have some kind of softening element on its case or dial—a roundedness here, a curve there, an oblique angle anywhere at all—but not the Cubitus. Even the name sounds bluntly polygonal. It is simply not something the horological world is used to seeing. Celebrated watch designs are largely rooted in either streamlined modernism or sleek Art Deco, with an organic sensibility and the occasional Baroque touch. The Cubitus eschews these. Brave or foolhardy? Time will tell.
In any case, the Cubitus is worth a second look, because the new Reference 7128 executions (RM363,600) downsize it to 40mm across, as opposed to the 45mm of the Reference 5821 at launch. Square watches have the curious, somewhat unintuitive property of wearing smaller than the measurement suggests—45mm square feels a bit like a 42mm round watch, and the 40mm Cubitus feels like a mid-sized 38mm. The 7128 is hence more easygoing on a wider variety of wrists, and some may find the reduced dimensions make the architecture seem less severe. Certainly, with the tried-and-tested Nautilus-style bracelet and a thickness of only 8.5mm, it is very easy to wear. It is available in two varieties: Reference 7128/1G, which has a white gold case and a sunburst blue-grey dial, and Reference 7128/1R, with a rose gold case and sunburst brown dial. Both maintain the Cubitus’ keystone trait—in a landscape crowded with integrated bracelet watches, it is completely distinct and utterly unmistakable.
Reference 5328G-001 Calatrava 8-Day
Patek Philippe refers to the Reference 5328G-001 Calatrava 8-Day (RM335,600) as a “useful in everyday life” sort of complication. It is a rare watch collector who is determined to wind their watch only once a week, but there is no doubt that long power reserves are a significant technical challenge, even if they are a little less headline-grabbing than some others.
Nonetheless, this watch has a new movement: the manually wound 31-505 8J PS IRM CI J. In addition to being something of a mouthful, this movement builds upon Patek Philippe’s recent history of long-power reserve movements, particularly that found in the Reference 5200 Gondolo 8-Day from 2013. A pair of barrels connected in series provides unflagging power for eight full days. It can also run the watch for a ninth, though accuracy is less guaranteed due to the oscillator’s amplitude dropping. It uses Patek Philippe’s Pulsomax escapement, which was developed as part of the brand’s ‘Advanced Research’ programme, and features enhanced performance and reliability, thanks to its unique geometry and specialised manufacturing process. It is only the fourth Patek Philippe model in the current collection to be equipped with a Pulsomax escapement. The day aperture and date subdial at 6 o’clock makes use of a patented mechanism first introduced in the Reference 5822P-001 Cubitus released last October, and allows both indications to jump simultaneously and instantaneously. A power reserve indicator sits at 12 o’clock, with the ‘reserve tank’ ninth day marked in red.
The dial is blue with a black gradient edge, with a texture inspired by vintage cameras as introduced on the Reference 5526G-001 and Reference 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time from 2022. This, combined with the luminous syringe hands and Arabic numbers, as well as the more muscular case design and dimensions—41mm in diameter and about 10.5mm thick—lend it a more robust, down-to-earth charm than some of the other, more formal Calatrava executions. Perhaps “everyday life” was the right descriptor after all.
