Patek Philippe

My vintage 2555 after a service.  Seeing the lovely 27SC movement for the first time.  Mvmt pics sent by Patek.

It's a pity that they don't have the swan neck fine adjuster anymore!  I now have to go to Chopard for that now!  Chopard's current 96 series LUC movements are better than Patek Philippe's current calibers in terms of many details; the Chopard movement has COSC certification, Geneva Seal (Patek Philippe would say their seal is equivalent or better, so this one is canceled out), and the Chopard has the swan neck spring!  But look at this old Patek Philippe movement!  It's wonderful!

Why has Patek stopped using this swan neck fine adjuster? What do they use now? Interesting.. and would be interested to learn more. Thanks

They employ little screws that adjust the length of the spring on the assembly.  Then they have little screws on the balance wheel rim itself - these screws are weights and they can adjust them as well.  This is enough to adjust the rate and amplitude.  The springs are pre cut and computer matched to their balance wheels so the whole manufacturing process has improved to reduce the amount of fine adjustment necessary.  But...  It still wouldn't be a bad idea to keep the swan neck spring.  But these parts are expensive, they're cut from a solid block of metal using a wire spark erosion machine (basically a gigantic electrified wire made of tungsten acts as a belt saw) and this process is slow and expensive.  While the machine can run autonomously overnight and cut little stacks of metal probably 8 plates thick (meaning it cuts 8 swan neck springs at a time), Patek Philippe would need about a 50-70 (depending on utilization and downtime) of these expensive and difficult to maintain machines if they were to keep up with production.  The swan neck spring itself needs to be hand polished as well, which means they'd need to hire dozens of employees to do this too.  It'd add millions in costs per year (even if we're amortizing the machines over a 10 year period) and it wouldn't be something anyone would expect.  Vacheron Constantin has gone away from this too.  Only Chopard still has it.  And Chopard is less of a leader in the Swiss Watch industry...  It's not Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, nor Audemars Piguet which are probably regarded as the major leaders of the high end watch industry.  None of those "major leaders" of the "high end" (aka haute horlogerie) use Swan Neck Springs anymore.  

class with Patek DNA ! 👍

For the one having a small wrist and loving vintage PP like me (or for our dear half ones), these vintage Calatrava are simply exquisite, delightful and a real bargain.