A perpetual calendar is like a small computer on your wrist.
Think of it this way: Imagine a watch that keeps track of not only the time, but also the date, the day of the week, and the month, and also tells you whether it’s a leap year or not, and what the current phase of the moon is. Oh, and one more thing — imagine it does all of this mechanically, using springs and gears, and that you only have to adjust it once every century or so. Crazy, right?
Perpetual calendars are Patek Philippe’s speciality — it’s been making them in series since the 1940s. This particular quantieme perpetual, a Reference 5159J-001, dates to the 2000s. Housed in a 38mm 18K yellow gold half-’hunter’ case with officer’s lugs, a domed sapphire crystal, a signed ‘onion’ crown, and a polished bezel, it features an opaline white guilloché dial with black painted Roman numeral indices, an outer 1/5th-seconds track, a black gold polished ‘spade’ handset, a retrograde date scale and red-tipped pointer hand, a moonphase aperture at 6 o’clock, a month aperture at 3 o’clock, and a day aperture at 9 o'clock.
Powered by the Patek Philippe Calibre 324 S QR automatic movement — which is visible via a half-’hunter,’ sapphire exhibition caseback — it’s paired to a signed, brown alligator leather strap with an 18K rose gold, signed deployant clasp.
This QP flawlessly bridges the gap between classic pocket watch and modern wristwatch design, resulting in a contemporary timepiece that encapsulates the best of Patek’s history. Furthermore, it perfectly showcases the confluence of mechanical sophistication, and visual beauty.
Any old wristwatch can tell the time. Few truly define it.