gls
57
Split second movement - putting it in perspective
The 5959P, 5950A, and 5951P are very expensive watches, costing beyond $400,000 because of the great difficulty it takes to produce them by hand. The reason for the difficulty is that their movement, the CHR 27-525 PS, is the thinnest split second movement ever made, a mere 5.25mm thick. But how amazing is 5.25mm? Well, it turns out that in the early 90s Blancpain made the caliber 1181, which added 1.4mm to the existing 3.95mm base of the chronograph caliber 1180, for a total thickness of 5.35mm. So, Patek was able to shave 0.1mm off the 5.35mm Blancpain 1181 to create the 5.25mm CHR 27-525 PS almost 15 years later! Surprisingly, Blancpain sells their split second chronographs for less than $30,000. Am I missing something here, or is the CHR 27-525 PS way overblown? It sure seems to me that Patek is making much of the supposed difficulty of making the CHR 27-525 PS in order to justify astronomical prices. Surely, if Blancpain can build their 5.35mm split second chronographs and make a profit selling them for less than $30,000, Patek ought to be making quite a hefty profit selling their 5.25mm split second chronographs for almost 20 times as much.
Greg
Split second movement - putting it in perspective
here's the difference ...
