April 16, 2019

SOUND THE ALARM: INTRODUCING THE NEW PATEK PHILIPPE 5520P

by AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS

Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons unwraps the latest Grand Complication to join the great Genevan watchmaker’s collection

When Patek Philippe launched the Pilot Travel Time in 2015, it ruffled a few feathers. Patek, maker of exquisite dress watches and an iconic sports watch or two, isn’t at all known for its pilot’s watches. Some said that like a glider behind a light aircraft, the Ref 5524 was hitching a ride on a journey it couldn’t make on its own, which just wasn’t very Patek. The brand found some archival evidence to legitimize the move, but still, the jury was split.

Yet here we are four years on and there’s no denying that the Patek Philippe Pilot Travel Time is both distinctively Patek and an important piece in the canon of pilot’s watches. Important because of its functionality, namely a second time zone that can be adjusted in one-hour jumps using pushers on the side of the case, and date and local and home time day/night indicators that sync as local time is adjusted.

At Baselworld this year, Patek turned the page on the story of the watch by introducing a new version of it with a mechanical alarm function, the Ref 5520P Alarm Travel Time. With a platinum case and a new movement, it’s got some serious wings. Let’s take a look.

One crown, three pushers

The aesthetic change to the new watch you see immediately are those four, perfectly symmetrical ears. On the right are a crown and a pusher. The crown at 4 o’clock is for setting and winding the time and alarm; the pusher at 2 o’clock is to turn the alarm on and off.

On the left are the plus and minus pushers for adjusting local time, shown by the filled central hand. Home time is shown via the skeletonised hand. For every push, the local time hour hand moves forward or back one hour, while the date at 6 o’clock for local time and the day/night indicators for both home and local time adjust in sync.

These are impressively simple solutions to a complex function, and surprisingly easy to use, particularly given Patek has engineered the new movement so it’s virtually impossible to damage it by over-tightening, or, in the event you would, operating the second time zone function while the alarm is striking (the alarm would stop, in that case).

A 40-second alarm

While the second time zone function is familiar to the Travel Time, the alarm is new, as is the movement behind it. Patek developed an automatic calibre explicitly for this watch. It’s integrated and impressively thin given its function, meaning the whole watch is 42.2mm across and a modest 11.57mm thick. That gives it presence, without losing Patek’s design decorum.

The alarm time is set to the nearest 15 minutes and indicated by the digital display at 12 o’clock and by an on/off indicator just above it (white for on, black for off). Inside the watch is a traditional hammer-and-gong striking mechanism that chimes at a frequency of 2.5hz over 40 seconds – roughly 90 chimes in total.

Five years of development

Patek says it spent five years developing the Ref 5520 and has filed four patents against it, including for the digital alarm display and for the clever alarm winding deactivation function protecting the mechanism. It’s a highly robust calibre – its rate doesn’t flinch even when the pushers are pressed to adjust local time.

The movement has 574 parts, many of which are on permanent display through the watch’s sapphire case back, including the 21-carat rotor, the silicon balance and the famous ‘PP’ of the Patek Philippe Seal, which demands a watch must be accurate to within tolerances of just -3/+2 seconds a day (chronometer certification is -4/+6 seconds a day). As ever, the finishing of the movement’s hand-polished and chamfered bridges is exquisite.

An aesthetic upgrade

The overall look of the Ref 5520 is familiar. The large Arabic numerals and broad baton hands filled with lume remain from the 2015 model and are as easy to read as they ever were, practicality being one of the watch’s core design objectives.

The difference, which won’t be clear on paper, is that the case material has been upgraded, too. The original was in white gold, while the Ref 5520P is in heavier platinum, as the P in the reference indicates.

A grand execution

Patek’s grand complication watches are always hugely collectable and made in painfully low numbers. The Ref 5520P will be no exception to either of those rules, but it won’t be judged by them. Rather, it’ll be remembered as a mechanical pioneer, making a highly complicated but remarkably practical watch even more complicated, but without stripping it of its user-friendliness. A fabulous achievement.