Earlier this week in Geneva, Patek Philippe unveiled 10 new timepieces to commemorate the brand’s 175th Anniversary.
Among the ten references, the one that is most interesting to us is reference 5575 – the Patek Philippe World Time Moon. It is presented in a sleek white gold case measuring 39.8 by 9.81 mm, fully polished and with a cambered sapphire crystal on the front. The caseback is solid white gold, with a brushed finish and an engraving that reads, “PATEK PHILIPPE GENEVE 175e Anniversaire 1839 – 2014.”
Powering the World Time Moon is the all new caliber 240 HU LU. This ultra-thin self-winding mechanical movement features a 22K gold micro rotor with unidirectional winding. It utilizes a free-sprung, Gyromax balance wheel and Patek’s silicon, Spriomax, balance spring. The balance cadence is 3Hz and the maximum power reserve is 48-hours. The movement has 35 jewels and consists of 270 total components. Chronometrically, it exceeds official chronometer specs with a maximum daily deviation between -3 and +2 seconds. The main plate is decorated with perlage, and the bridges and rotor are decorated with Geneva stripes.
The multi-part dial is made up of two peripheral rotating scales and large moonphase display in the center, as well as 18K white gold hour and minute hands.
The world time function allows all adjustments to be performed with a single pusher at 10 o’clock. When making corrections, the mechanism is separated from the movement, so the oscillation of the balance and the accuracy of the minutes hand is unaffected.
Each time the pusher is pressed, the central hour hand advances one hour, while the city and 24-hour disks move counterclockwise by one time zone. For example, if the hands previously indicated 10:15 as the local time for London, they now display 11:15 for Geneva.
The large moon phase indication in the center of the dial, is the most realistic moon phase Patek Philippe has ever created. It is composed of two extremely thin, metallized glass disks. According to Patek Philippe, “The bottom one is decorated with the nocturnal sky using an innovative metallization process. It shows a richly detailed and very large rendering of the moon. Several craters, so- called lunar maria, are faithfully reproduced with fine gray-white gradations. This disk performs one complete revolution every 29.53 days. The upper half of the second stationary disk just above it is metallized with a precisely calculated, heart-shaped contour. This mask exposes only the visible portion of the moon on the rotating disk and covers the area that in reality is darkened by the earth’s shadow.”
The Patek Philippe World Time Moon case has a length of 45.25, and a width of 21 mm in between the lugs. It is also available in a slightly smaller, diamond set, rose gold ladies model. Limited to 450 pieces. (Ref. 7175)
The men’s model (Ref. 5575G-001) is limited to 1300 pieces and will retail for 46,000 CHF. It is 30 meters water-resistant and comes paired with a hand stitched, shiny black alligator leather trap with large squares and a Calatrava fold-over clasp in 18K white gold.
For more, visit Patek Philippe.
