Patek Philippe 5531R World Time Minute Repeater

Moderator Patrick_y shares the details of the new Patek Philippe 5531R model.  A special WorldTime Minute Repeater that Patek Philippe has made for their special 2017 Grand Exhibition event in New York City.  Patek Philippe hosted an explanatory interview of the new 5531R WorldTime Minute Repeater with highlights to the path of its creation.  Let's read what they have to say. 




The two 5531R models and the ladie's minute repeater. 




The perpetually elegant Larry Pettinelli, President of Henri Stern Watch Agency, gives a quick introductory speech.




The humorous Thierry Stern makes a welcome speech and throws in a few jokes. He emphasizes the continued importance of Patek Philippe and how he once lived in the USA to better understand Patek Philippe's largest market. Thierry Stern's involvement in every aspect of the watch is very apparent. He constantly worked with his team, explained his expectations to his team, and had the watch designed with practicality and usability in mind. He has no desire to produce a useless "gimmicky" watches and he insists on producing watches that are logical, well suited to real world use, and applicable to their operation.




Philip Barat, Head of Development for Patek Philippe, takes us on a journey of the new timepiece and its technical hilights.




Introducing the 5531R WorldTime Minute Repeater. Two dial versions; daytime view of Manhattan and nighttime view of Manhattan. Each limited to 5 pieces.




Comes with two case backs; a solid and transparent caseback. Pierced lugs. Hobnail (clous de paris) case band. All executed in rose gold.






It's not that easy... Patek Philippe couldn't just join a WorldTime with a minute repeater. That wouldn't work. Because you had to get the minute repeater to chime out the time indicated on the face (local time) and not home time. Thierry Stern was adamant about this, and that the minute repeater needed to change if a new timezone was displayed. This has never been done before, so you had to integrate the WorldTime to the Minute Repeater in order to achieve this. It may have been easier for Patek Philippe to have connected a 24 hour snail to the city disc ring. But Thierry Stern was adamant that this was impractical, he stated that listening 24 hour strikes would take too long and be illogical as you already know if it's AM or PM in your local timezone. Thus, the minute repeater is a normal speed of around 19 seconds for the 12:59 (longest possible) sequence. With 24 hour strikes, the sequence could potentially take nearly 30 seconds!




The local time has to be synchronized to the minute repeater. The 12-hour star wheel ensures that regardless of the 24 hour timezone, only a maximum of 12 hours can be read by striking mechanism. Thus, the 12-hour snail (the snail with 12 indentations on the lower right side is what counts the hours so the hammer strikes the number of hours) had to be integrated to the WorldTime mechanism. In a way, there's a natural 12 hour built in reduction system.  This entire integration method is patent pending.




Also, it was important that the hour snail not move at all when the minute repeater was activated. Thus, there is a safety mechanism built in, that the timezone pusher is isolated when the minute repeater is activated. Without this, the entire minute repeater could be broken if an inexperienced user pressed any button when the minute repeater was actively striking.




The gongs are actually connected to the side of the case, rather than the crystal or the case bottom for better sound transmission. The gongs are tuned traditionally in conjunction with the attached case. Thierry Stern listens to every piece personally to make sure the sound is satisfactory. Also, every piece's harmonic signature is recorded in a Patek Philippe computer.






Which one do you like more? Day or night?

It'd have been too easy to just put a WorldTime on top of a minute repeater.  And you'd have problems as the minute repeater wouldn't be able to chime out the hours correctly if the movement wasn't adapted. 

Many special thanks to Larry Pettinelli, Thierry Stern, Philip Barat, and the team at Patek Philippe for hosting this explanatory interview. 

This message has been edited by MTF on 2017-07-15 08:27:44