southnc
9
Analysis: 5134 verses 5130
I have seen many debates over Patek timezone watches. In particlular, the 5134 Travel Time and 5130 World Time. There have been other discussions about comparing these two watches; generally, at a high-level involving looks and collectibility.
Since I have always been interested in GMT watches and a fan of Patek, I decided to carefully research both of these watches, and came up with some interesting observations for those who truly value tracking multiple time zone.
Actually, although these watches track multiple times, they are really different types of watches. Basically, the 5130 is a World Timer that shows time in different cities at a given moment, whilst the 5134 is more of a radical GMT 2-time zone watch.
-World Timers are flawed
Don't mean to be rude, but mechanical World Timer watches (in standard design) can never really be accurate, because of Daylight Savings Time (DST). Some cities follow them and some don't; and, there may be different approaches to implementing DST, depending on local government regulations. As a result, while you are observing DST, some of the the cities indicated on the watch could be off by an hour. So, the watch is faulted to begin with.
There are some interesting compromises to this design. For example, if you can live with just 3 timezones, the Franck Muller Master Banker is immune to DST issues. I have also seen some World Timers that have a larger bezel with cities listed with AND w/o DST. Beyond this, only digital world timers can truly compensate for DST.
Don't get me wrong, Patek's implementation of a World Timer is very innovative and one of the best I've seen, but you can only do so much with a design that is broken in the first place.
Beyond that, I do like the fact that it is an automatic and the dial is beautiful and very easy to ready, so that you can quickly get the information you need. However, some may feel the dial is a bit too busy.
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The Patek 1534 (white & yellow gold) has a new dial this past year, that is more consistant with the highly coveted Platinum model and looks much better than with the previous dial. I like the Rose color finish best. (You can get some great deals on the old dial, though).
This is a clever GMT implementation, in that instead of having the usual 12-hour dial with independent 24-hour dial (ie, Rolex Explorer II), it provides two 12-hour indicator hands (Home and Local) on the same dial AND a separate 24-hour dial at 12 that is tied back to one of the hour indicators. It also has a seconds dial at 6. This design provides for some remarkable capabilities:
-Travelor
You set the Home hour hand to your local time, which is also tied to the 24-hour indicator. You then set the black Local hand to where ever you are going, which is easily adjustable up or down by buttons on the left side of the watch. To adjust for home DST, you have to rotate the Home hand one rotation as you would on any typical mechanical watch.
-Pilot's Watch
In this case, you reverse logic. The Home hand is set to Zulu time, because it requires 24-hour interpretation when filing flight plans, etc. The Local hand is then used for your "Home" time. Since Zulu time is not effected by DST, you only need to click the the buttons once to adjust your Home time in this configuration, when you change from or to DST locally. For example, on the east coast, local time is Zulu + 5 for standard time and Zulu + 4 for DST.
-Standard One Zone Watch
The 5134 has the ability to literally transform itself into a different watch! How can that be? Set the Local = Home time; this should make the black Local hand disappear into the gold Home hand. So, you now have a basic hour-minute watch with a seperate 24-hour indicator AND a slightly less cluttered dial. Neat!
What I do not like about the 5134 is that it is not an automatic (as nearly all GMTs are), nor does it have a Reserve indicator. Of course, without a rotar, the case-back view is more interesting. Also, as a Pilot watch, you can only use it during daytime, since it does not glow in the dark, which is required for night-time ops.
The older 5134 dial was definately not popular - especially since I see so many available at discounted prices.
Personally, I really wish that Patek would have followed the same design as Carl E Bucherer's Tonneau GMT, which is an automatic that also has reserve indicator (instead of seconds). Hence, you can truly rely on the watch.
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Conclusions
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I do not believe the lack of date on either Patek watch is an issue.
Overall, I believe the 5134 is the better watch. And the Platinum version should be very collectible.
Any thoughts?
