UK Edition 2025 – The Daily Telegraph

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61

F O C U S

This year, Patek Philippe’s storied

Calatrava acquired some useful compli-

cations made possible by the latest tech-

nical developments from the Maison. The

new watch has calendar and a power-re-

serve indicator aligned vertically on the

dial in an exemplar of the brand’s techni-

cal and stylistic mastery.

Five years in the making, the new manual-winding

Calibre 31-505 8J PS IRM CI J features the Pulsomax®

escapement, with its Silinvar® pallet fork and escape

wheel, all developments that have emerged from the

“Patek Philippe Advanced Research” programme, which

seeks to improve the reliability, precision and longev-

ity of mechanical movements. The Calatrava 8-Day

Reference 5328G-001 becomes the fourth regular-pro-

duction Patek Philippe model to use this escapement,

following the Annual Calendar Regulator Reference

5235 introduced in 2011, the Gondolo “8 Days, Day &

Date Indication” Reference 5200 launched in 2013, and

the 1/10th second monopusher chronograph Reference

5470P-001 in 2022.

Combined with the Spiromax® balance spring, also

developed by the same research initiative, the Pulsomax®

offers outstanding reliability and performance. Its con-

tribution is crucial to the watch’s eight-day power

reserve, stored in two series-mounted barrels. Long

power reserves typically present a challenge in terms of

maintaining a stable rate throughout their duration. Patek

Philippe has tackled this challenge multiple times since

the early 2000s. The Reference 5100 “10 Days”, limited

to 3,000 pieces and introduced in the year 2000, was

the first chronometer wristwatch in the world to offer a

240-hour reserve. On this year’s Calatrava, the reserve

indicator is divided into nine segments. The final sec-

tion is shown in red to signal that precision may begin

to drop if the watch is left unwound for too long, the rec-

ommendation being to make sure the watch is wound

before that zone is reached.

As for the so-called “simple” calendar, which requires

manual correction several times a year at the end of

months with fewer than 31 days, it is far from basic. It

benefits from an instantaneous-jump mechanism, orig-

inally developed for the Cubitus Reference 5822P-001

and introduced in 2024, which both controls the power

of each jump and guarantees its precision. The day (via

a disc in a window) and the date (by a hand on a con-

centric scale around the small seconds) jump together,

simultaneously and instantly, powered by energy accu-

mulated over the course of the day. The movement can

be set at any time of day or night, forwards or back-

wards, even around midnight, without any risk of dam-

age. At Patek Philippe, clever engineering always serves

to enhance usability.

Timeless elegance

The Calibre 31-505 8J PS IRM CI J debuts in the

Calatrava collection, Patek Philippe’s quintessen-

tial line of classical watches. First introduced in 1932,

the Calatrava takes its name from the Calatrava cross,

formed by four stylised fleurs-de-lys and now the brand’s

emblem and powerful in every sense. Based on Bauhaus

design principles of simplicity, purpose and clarity, the

Calatrava collection has evolved through many inter-

pretations while retaining the signature elegance that

gives it its enduring identity.

One of the most memorable iterations was the

Reference 3919 of 1985, with its guilloché “Clous de Paris”

bezel. This model remained in production for over 20

years, finally being withdrawn from the main collec-

tion in 2018, not before being refined and updated with

the Reference 5119 in 2006 and the 5116 in 2009. The

absence was short-lived, however, and the Calatrava

with Clous de Paris returned in 2021 and, since 2022,

several References have featured the motif on the case

band, including this year’s Reference 5328G-001.

Patek Philippe continues to highlight the traditional

decorative crafts it helped preserve through the indus-

try’s contraction in the late 20th century, when many

were on the brink of disappearing. One of the key crafts

to be preserved was guilloché, a form of engraving per-

formed using antique manually operated machines and

which is used to create precise geometric patterns like

the Clous de Paris pyramid motif. When applied to the

case band, it brings an added level of refinement and as

the lugs are only fixed at the caseback, space is left for

the decoration to flow continuously around the case

without interruption, a subtle touch that’s typical of the

brand’s uncompromising attention to detail.

The Calatrava 8-Day Reference 5328G-001 also stands

out with its vertical layout of complications on a textured

blue dial that darkens to black at the edges. It is presented

with two interchangeable straps and adds further depth

to a collection that showcases Patek Philippe’s full com-

mand of technical innovation and aesthetic refinement.

■ Marie Le Berre

1 & 2. PATEK PHILIPPE Calatrava 8-Day Ref. 5328G-001.

A new Calatrava joins the collection of practical complications,

featuring a day display (aperture), date by hand (at 6 o’clock), and

a power reserve of at least 8 days (at 12 o’clock). The hand-wound

31-505 8J PS IRM CI J calibre, developed over five years, includes a

Gyromax® balance, Spiromax® hairspring and Pulsomax® escape-

ment. The vertically aligned displays sit on a black-to-blue tex-

tured dial, within a 41 mm white gold case enhanced with hob-

nail guilloché on the caseband. It comes with two interchangeable

calfskin straps: one blue with a textile motif and cream stitching,

the other being a grained taupe.

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