Horological Meandering

MTR
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From Watch Fatigue to a Baroque Shock: An Unexpected Encounter with a Patek Philippe 5160

As two other brands play a role in this little story, I deliberately decided not to place this thread in the Patek Philippe forum.

My AD lured me into his boutique under all sorts of pretexts.

“You love technically exciting watches with a certain aesthetic twist. We have some wonderful things here that you should see.”

That was about all I could get out of him.

So on Friday evening, after a day of absolutely insane rushing around and several rather demanding business meetings, I quickly stopped by the boutique. I was curious anyway, because the store is currently being renovated and they have temporarily moved to another location for about a year.

There were quite a lot of people, but as always I was greeted very warmly.

And then things immediately got down to business.

They first presented a very interesting Jacob & Co Epic X World Time in DLC-coated titanium. What fascinated me most was the way the two time zones are implemented: they are not just linked hour displays, but can actually be adjusted completely independently – even the minutes. For anyone who travels frequently between places with unusual time offsets, that is quite a clever and rather rare solution. The sculpted world map across the dial also gives the watch a very distinctive aesthetic presence.





After that came a few truly intriguing pieces from Urwerk, including an UR-220 All Black. As many of you know, the UR-220 represents one of the later evolutions of Urwerk’s famous satellite-hour display system. On the back it also carries the brand’s well-known oil-change service indicator, reminding the owner after several years that it is time for a major service – a wonderfully nerdy and very Urwerk-like piece of engineering.







And then they presented many other watches from Urwerk, UN and Hautlence (the Hautlence was too similar to a watch from this brand I already own).

To be honest, these were actually the two watches that interested me the most that evening, and the only ones I ended up photographing.

And then the managing director appeared with a smile and said:

“You’re still looking for a watch for your 60th birthday in October, aren’t you?”

And with that he presented me with this piece:









A Patek Philippe 5160/500R-001.

For those who may not immediately recognize the reference, it is essentially the baroque, hand-engraved cousin of the 5159. With the officer-style case, perpetual calendar and retrograde date, but taken to a completely different aesthetic level.

Fulminant, baroque, almost over the top, yet at the same time unique and incredibly beautiful. It nearly knocked me off my chair.

A watch that had never really been on my radar.

And perhaps that is exactly what makes it so dangerous.

But once it was on the wrist, it fit like a glove.




The only way I managed to escape the situation was by saying that I would first like to see what Watches & Wonders might bring this year before deciding on my birthday watch.

All the watch fatigue I had been feeling over the past weeks (Tony!!!) suddenly disappeared.
Or rather – thinking of Tony’s thread from a few days ago – it was simply blown away.

Now I’m trying to calm myself down (two days have already passed), but the watch simply refuses to leave my mind.

Now I am trying very hard to be reasonable.
But I have a feeling this baroque beauty may not be done with me yet… 🙏

Have a great Sunday, my dear watch friends.
Thomas