Weekly Idol
Patek Philippe introduces not just
a calendar complication but a new
old school retro-aesthetic born from
handwritten font style
Words jonathan ho
In the Patek Philippe Ref. 5212A-001
Calatrava Weekly Calendar for 2019, the
Geneva manufacture introduces an all-new
in-house calibre with a new complication:
The weekly calendar. The Calatrava Weekly
Calendar is so named for the semi-integrated
mechanism that adds a week of the year
indication to traditional indications such as
date and day of the week.
For more than a century, Patek Philippe has
been known for its calendar watches, thanks
to its development of a myriad of features,
including the introduction of the annual
calendar complication. Developed as recently
as 1996, Patek Philippe introduced the concept
of the Annual Calendar in Ref. 5035. This
watch packed all the sexiness and complexity
(in terms of number of components required,
316 to the perpetual calendar’s 275) of a
perpetual calendar but at a more modest price
point. To wit, an Annual Calendar is to the
Perpetual Calendar what an Aquanaut is to
the Nautilus.
The 2019 Ref. 5212A Calatrava Weekly
Calendar with new manufacture calibre is
an extension of the “useful complications”
watchmaking policy pursued by Patek Philippe.
The new Calatrava Weekly Calendar joins
other luminaries such as the Ref. 5200 Gondolo
“8 Days, Day & Date Indication”, with
instantaneous day-of-week and date display
and of course, the famed annual calendar. In
terms of utility, finance professionals, for one,
sometimes need to know the week of the year
in the course of their work.