Partaking of Watchmaking Beauty

Why the Patek Philippe 5970 perpetual calendar chronograph? For two reasons: first, that mine is a very special end-of-series execution with a bronze dial and I was profoundly touched to be allocated the last piece. That I was found worthy of this timepiece is to me the ultimate validation of my one and a half decades as a watch journalist. The second thing is that to me, the 5970 — the last of the Lemania 2310-based Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronographs — is the single most beautiful classic wristwatch ever created. Whoa! What the hell? Hang on. Because I know that has immediately raised the hackle/ire/eyebrows of many a veteran watch collector. And as Mike Tay, Group Managing Director of The Hour Glass points out: “Most aficionados will look at the 2499, in particular the first series watches with its square pushers and tachymeter scale, as the single, most important complicated wristwatch in the last 100 years. More than the 1518 launched in 1941 by the Stern family — the world’s first serially produced perpetual calendar chronograph with 281 examples made — which created the genetic blueprint for this complication.” But Tay feels that, at 35mm, the 1518 is just a touch too small compared to the 37.5mm diameter of the 2499, whose presence on the wrist is further enhanced by its sexy stepped lugs.