Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G-001

A Patek Philippe, we are told by a marketing department that clearly knows who its audience is, is never owned. It is merely looked after for the next generation. In other words, this is a luxury watch brand that creates timepieces with an eternal appeal—and a build quality that will last.
And that's why the Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G-001 is such a surprising timepiece. Released in 2015, the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time continues Patek's foray into new territory: creating slick, modern watches with a classical inspiration.
The Calatrava Pilot Travel Time is inspired by Patek's historic 'hour angle' watches: pilot's watches designed to help aviators calculate their position by triangulating the time with information from a radio and a sextant. The functionality of the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time has little in common with this navigational technique, but the look of the watch takes its cues from these 1930s counterparts. Hour, minute, and second hand design mirrors the appearance of old Patek hour-angle pieces, and the Arabic numerals on the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time are clearly inspired by the older dials.
The (very dark) blue lacquered dial on the Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G-001 appears grey or even black in dim lighting, revealing its blue tint under brighter illumination. Think the sky, transforming from dark to deep blue as the sun comes up. It's a gorgeously textured backdrop for the hands (sword-shaped, in blued steel with a hefty amount of lume), numerals (white gold filled with equally solid quantities of SuperLuminova), and date-hand subdial.
There is also lume in the pip at the end of the second hand.
Behind the dial, Patek's Caliber 324 SC FUS beats at 4Hz (28,800 vph). You can see the movement, with its spectacular gold rotor embossed with the Patek seal, ticking away reliably behind the sapphire caseback. Caliber 324 SC FUS is a mechanical self-winding movement with a power reserve minimum of 35 hours (average is 40 hours). The Spiromax balance spring and Gyromax balance keep the movement accurate to within -3/+2 seconds per day. The balance is made of Patek's own version of silicon – Silinvar- which protects the caliber from magnetic interference, and requires no lubrication.
The travel time function on this luxury watch is worthy of note for its simple elegance (something we've come to expect from Patek Philippe, even when its luxury watch designs break with all that tradition), and for the clever locking pushers. On the left-hand side of the case, an advance and retrograde pusher allow the user to quickly and easily set local time. When not in use, a simple quarter-turn suffices to lock the pushers, preventing accidental time changes and guaranteeing water resistance down to 60 m. Another quarter-turn reactivates the pushers. The action of the pushers is slick and reliable and makes the watch feel solidly well-made under the fingers.
There are two small day/night indicators for local and home time: local at 9 o' clock and home at 3 o'clock. This neat little feature prevents the wearer from accidentally calling loved ones in the middle of the night.
The date hand is linked to the local time. If the wearer is at home, and local time is not required, the two hour hands of the watch are superposed and the day/night indicators both display the same colour (white for day, blue for night).
The 42 mm case is white gold, and the bracelet is brown calfskin secured by a buckle (also in white gold).
The Calatrava is seen by many as the classic Patek Philippe. This Calatrava, though, is a significant departure from the DNA of that luxury watch family. The high, sporty case (11.78 mm) and hefty 51 mm lug-to-lug measurement, the pilot's design—they mark the Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G-001 as a new kind of animal. If you like the idea of a Patek that doesn't toe the party line, or just want a high-end, high-quality sports watch, this is the piece for you.
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Image Credit – officialwatches.com vedere di piu orologi rolex e Rolex Daytona