Patek Philippe

Hi all forum participants:  Has anyone run into any problem with the pp 240 movement like the rotor jamming, etc.  What is the overall opinion of the movement.  Lots of headache or smooth like silk.  Thanks for your advice.

My dealer sells TONS of PP, and I've seen the watchmaker work on plenty of them when they come in for service, but I don't think I've ever seen a 240-based watch on the bench.

Take that for what it is worth
A

Maybe what I heard is a single incidence.  Good to know that it is not the case, at least from your experience.  Cheers!

Like I have told on this forum earlier and like I told wso on a PM, I have very bad experience with a PP equipped with a 240 movement. A brand new watch I bought from an AD did not work even one day and the repairs took about 11 months. After the same the watch did not work in a proper way and it was finally fixed by a private watchmaker.

Sometimes I feel that it is not "politically correct" to mention about any problems of the very "top end brands". The same happened to me some years ago when a new, top end BMW just stopped to the middle of the road in the middle of rush hours. It was, according to the importer something that "never happens or never happened before". However, at least BMW admitted later that they had some problems with the programs of a new model and my car was #1 of the same model arriving to my country.

Still today I own four BMW cars. But because Patek never commented the problems in a decent way, I prefer to buy something else than PP if another top brand is having a corresponding watch I really want.

Best regards,

Kari

 

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When I thought to buy a Patek it had to have the 240 caliber.

It is more than 30 years in production and still one of the most iconic movements in the watch enthusiast world.

Reported incidents of issues is something that can always happen with any technical product but my experineces with the 240 are very good.

As it is a very thin movement and also the fact that it beats with just 21600 bpm it is superbly accurate !

My Ellipse runs just 1.5 seconds a day ahead !

Regards

 

Moritz

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Unfortunately, I have no personal experience with the 240 movement (but a Ref. 5140 would be my grail watch). In a review of the Patek Philippe Ref. 5146 posted in this forum the author said:

Still a perpetual calendar was and still often is seen as a delicate mechanism to use and settle. The new annual calendar invented by Patek Philippe was intended to be much more usable, and as efficient. 

patek.watchprosite.com

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Hi,

What I wrote was more about the fact that a perpetual calendar can be at risk when you settle the calendar, it is a delicate time and you should IMO settle one cautiously.

It's not really the same situation when you wear it. PP has produced probably thousands of PC watches based on the 240 already and I've never specially heard of problems with these watches, so they are certainly reliable.

Cheers

Dje

Thanks for joining in Dje. I hope I did not quote you out of context. I am a bit curious about the statement "a perpetual calendar can be at risk when you (set) the calendar, it is a delicate time and you should IMO settle one cautiously." I understand it as if you do not set the calendar correctly, you could damage the movement. Once set properly, and used the movement itself is durable. Is my understanding correct.?

Thanks.

nt

The big concern is not to set the calender when the gears are engaged, say between 9PM and 4AM. Best to advance the time to noon, then set the calender settings and reset the time. Avoid resetting anywhere near the gear engaged time.  I have two with no issues.

If you have a look how small the crown from an Ellipse is you will be amazed that you can manually wind the caliber 240, working in it.

The crown must be one of the smallest, if not THE smallest, crown that is used with a watch, with just a few millimeter in diameter !

If you wind it manually you hear a very, very smooth " ssst sssst ssssst " instead the usual "krrrick krrrick krrrrick".

The winding sound and the fact that it can ce wound manually with such a delicately small crown tells all about this treuly marvelous caliber !

 

Regards

 

Moritz

its an amazing one for sure