iW Fall/Winter 2022 iW Fall/Winter 2022 | Page 54

TRAVEL TIME The totally new Ref . 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time arrives in a new 41mm white gold Calatrava case with a terrific hobnailed case-side treatment meant to recall the hobnail bezels that have long characterized Patek Philippe ’ s traditional Calatrava collection .

The watch will also draw stares to its light-refracting textured charcoal gray dial that darkens to black toward its minute track . Vintage-styled applied numerals and white gold hour and minute hands are coated with an equally retro beige luminescence . ( This same dial , case , hand and marker layout is also found on another 2022 debut , the less complex Cal . 5226G , a three-hand 40mm white gold Calatrava with date .)
Patek Philippe ’ s watchmakers designed a new self-winding caliber ( new 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H ) for the new Annual Calendar Travel Time in which the Travel Time mechanism controls the Annual Calendar . The unusual setup , in which the watch ’ s date display is synchronized with local time , allows forwards and backwards date correction .
And to better retain the dressy Calatrava style , Patek Philippe resisted the need to install two pushers to control the two hour hands ( a solid hand for local time and a skeletonized hand for home time ). Instead , the wearer can correct the local time via the crown . Calendar indications can be adjusted via small caseside correctors located near their respective functions : day at 10 , month at 2 , date at 4 and moon phases at 8 o ’ clock .
For this debut , Patek Philippe also updated its legendary Annual Calendar , which the brand essentially invented for the wristwatch in 1996 . And , Patek Philippe ’ s engineers shortened the Annual Calendar ’ s changeover time . Thanks to a new cam system , the changing dates and move to local time is five times faster ( eighteen minutes ) than the same actions in earlier annual calendars .
This change is among many that Patek Philippe has cited in eight patent applications for the new caliber .
Patek Philippe delivers its Ref . 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time with two interchangeable straps , one beige calfskin with nubuck texture . The second black calfskin strap has embossed textile finish and beige decorative stitching .
Price : $ 76,882 .
54 | INTERNATIONAL WRISTWATCH | FALL 2022