Patek Philippe

Hi All,

I had a mini GTG with my friend in Hong Kong.

His 5159 is very nice and we tested the retrograde date hand.  Guess what ? Not really retrograde because at the end the of the month the hand jumped clockwise forward to the beginning instead of backwards.

I coaxed him to cut the seal for his 5270G (with blue dial) (virgin protected by a condom LOL! ) but no luck yet !  What reasons can I use to convince him ?

Gordon

 

I went to try the 5159G once as it looks very nice, especially with its officer's caseback and the (non) retrograde date.

Concerning this mater, I must say I didn't know it worked that way.

Congratulations to him for the 5270 Blue dial. I would say he needs time and I'm sure he will come to it!

Thanks for sharing Gordon.

Cheers, Mark

This would be quite a "thing" as the declaration of the product would be wrong.

But Patek does not seem to be too fussy about details at times if you look at their chromos with wrong scaling.

Have you tried also months ending in 30 days?

Maybe it moves clock wise only in months ending 31?

Best

Moritz

yesterday my friend and I moved the date count forward (from May 29th to June 1st) by manually adjusting the hours hand because only 3 days from month end, and unless he finds his adjuster stick (or use a tooth pick) , he would probably wait for a while. LOL!!

No message body

From October to January 2014, I had the opportunity to play with a 5159G and observed the retrograde hand at the end of the months on several occasions, and posted my experiences in this forum. The date hand always moved ccw at the end of the month. Never noticed the cw movement of the date hand. I must admit that the hand moves very fast, and if you were blinking at the moment it moved, you will only see the final position at 1. Then there is a chance that your brain may think it was cw. It is best to record these movements by a fast camera and then decide. It is quite easy to fool the mind, as magicians do this all the time. Please let us know how things conclude. Best Jim

The 5159 has got a satellite wheel for the date changes which the 5059 did not have.

Best
Moritz

Do you have any more information about that?  I have always heard that the 5059 and the 5159 share the same movement.

the 2009 - 2010 catalogue.

But the chart is hardly to understand and the the explanation is therefore not really useful.

The explanation in Patek's catalogue does not mention the satellite wheel but I read it in a different article.

What I understand so far is that the satellite wheel has got fewer teeth compared to a four year wheel.

Rolex uses a satellite wheel in their annual calendar Sky Dweller too.

Best

Moritz

The 324 beats at 28,800 or 4 mz  over the 315's 3 mz and has a slightly shorter power reserve than the 315 due to its higher cadence. The result is a less jittery seconds hand on the 324. Otherwise, they are the same.

The mechanism is designed to do a CCW Retrograde.  Although if you look at the design of the system, it's possible that it can do a clockwise motion without damaging itself. 

For the 5270, he can wait until he's ready to unwrap it.  It's just a watch.  And it's a matter of self worth.  He will open it when he feels he is special enough to wear the watch. 

On the 5270 still sealed in plastic, yes, it is a shame that it hasn't been opened.

As a reason to "break the seal", I had a brand new 5205G that I bought from my dealer in Malaysia a few years ago. Stuck it in the Bank safe box as I was moving to Hong Kong and didn't yet have a place to safely store it. I collected it a number of months later, stored it in a bank in HK, and then finally opened it about one year after purchase.  It did not work out of the box.  These things happen.  Was well within warranty and HK Patek Servicing had it back to me in five weeks.  I always open everything right away now.

Dave

I think all mechanical devices need to be used and work otherwise, they prematurely dry up and need service.

Very cool pics.  And good job getting your friend to take the watch out of the wrapper
Regards,
ED-209

by the naked eye, Gordon. I've tried too many times. 

clockwise movement, right?

of eyes, we can reasonably hope to discover some truth. LOL

You should have let me know you were around - I am currently looking at a very special sealed piece in my office and awaiting the right moment to open!

guess which one it might be.

Will go to HK soon (probably this week) and hopefully can witness the "opening" ceremony.

Cheers,

Gordon

A particularly special example.........