Patek designed the Ref 5960P to be almost passable as a dress watch. It’s not a slim watch by any means at around 13.5mm but it still has a svelte profile. Which is one of the reasons collectors say it’s so easy to wear on a daily basis. By today’s standards though, it’s sizing is about as close to perfect as you can get. A replacement of sorts for the Ref 5960P, but a different beast altogether.Īt 40.5mm, the polished case of the Ref 5960P was a little on the large side for the time. The next year (2015), the Ref 5905P arrived on the scene. You can read the full story on that here. Although that didn’t quite work out as intended. An all steel model that the brand threw its full weight behind. The reason it seemed, was to make way for the Ref 5960/1A-001. Ditto for the rose gold version that had followed in 2009. Less than a decade later Patek made the surprising decision to nix the Ref 5960P in 2014. A surprising assessment of a timepiece that retailed for close to US$100k! I’ve heard more than one collector describe it as the ultimate, every day watch. Yet at the same time you would be hard-pressed to find a platinum-cased watch from the brand that is as wearable. Patek reserves this precious metal for when it wants to make a statement. The third drawcard, albeit an obvious one, is its platinum case. This was a luxury watch you could wear and use every day. Easy to read dial, with a novel mono-counter at 6 o’clock and three large calendar apertures across the top. Elegant yet sporty, this was not your buttoned-down classic Patek dress watch. Or anything on the market for that matter. It was unlike any other annual calendar watch in the collection at the time. The Ref 5960P was also a pioneer in other ways. (Patek debuted the Annual Calendar in the Ref 5035J in 1996. But especially when it incorporates a complication the brand invented a decade earlier. Anytime Patek develops a new movement it’s a big deal. Before that, the brand had relied on external movements modified in-house. The Caliber CH 28-520 IRM QA 24H with annual calendar and flyback functionality. First, it debuted the brand’s inaugural self-winding, in-house chronograph movement. The Patek system uses a wheel one gear back in the train, so the energy available is higher, and Patek's system, which is optimized in a number of unique ways (and I do mean unique, there are 31 patents associated with the movement of which seven are completely new) represents a completely new approach to constructing a high-frequency chronograph – while retaining one feature common to virtually all classic lateral clutch chronographs, which is driving the chrono train from the fourth wheel.Unveiled in 2006, the Patek Philippe Ref 5960P is special to collectors for more reason than one. Generally speaking, you don't want to drive anything off the escape wheel because the torque there is pretty low already, but Zenith has figured out a way to make it work. The system in the caliber 3600, however, is driven off the escape wheel, rather than the fourth wheel. The caliber 3600, used in the Zenith Chronomaster Sport, has a center 1/10 seconds hand that rotates slightly faster than the CH 29-535 PS 1/10, at one rotation every ten seconds. If you compare the caliber CH 29-535 PS 1/10 to the El Primero caliber 3600, the biggest difference you'll notice is in the driving and coupling systems.
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