Patek Philippe

NT931
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Patek ref 2481 “King-Size” review

As I reached a significant milestone in my life (Hint: I’m not turning 30 anytime soon), I began to think about buying a watch to commemorate the occasion.  And given my biases towards handwound no-date watches, it had to be along those lines.

Modern? Perhaps, but I had acquired the Gronefeld last year. So it had to be vintage. But which one? I started looking at vintage Patek steel watches but realized many were beyond my budget, especially the lovely 3417s.  By chance, I started looking at vintage Calatravas, searching in particular for the larger sizes of 36mm and up.

It turned out there weren’t all that many, and of all of them, very few were larger than 36mm.  Then one day, I chanced about the Ref 2481, and learned how it had been termed the ‘King-Size’ on account of its 37mm case. I fell in love with its lugs and case, and started hunting for one.  I managed to find one from a dealer I had purchased from before, so a few short emails later, a UPS box arrived, and it was mine!

The watch is in some ways a very typical Calatrava in terms of the hands, and hour markers, and the slightly raised “Patek Philippe” print on the dial.  Which is not a bad thing! The hands are easily read, while maintaining a studied elegance, and the cream dial goes well with the YG case.

The case is the unusual part though. First, the bezel is actually quite wide - it flares out as you start from the caseback, and widens the case from 35.6mm (at the back) to 36.9mm (at the bezel). This visually enlarges the watch. If you look at the bezel from the top, it has a flat rim, then as it approaches the crystal, it actually slopes down towards the crystal, lending a ‘concave’ appearance to the watch when viewed from the top. (I hope you can see all this from the side view)

The lugs are stepped, and lend that ineffable vintage elegance to the watch.  Quite coincidentally, the recently released Patek 5212A has similarly designed lugs.  For me, the lugs are the best part of the 2481.

On the wrist, it wears true to size for a 37mm watch, and is comfortable. It can be dressed up with a black strap, or dressed down with a brown strap. Surprisingly, I could not find much info about the 2481, except that the enamel versions tend to sell for quite a high price; apparently the larger dial lends itself to such work.  It does mean though that the ‘regular’ 2481s remain a bit under the radar, which suits me fine!

At the end, I feel I fortuitously discovered the right vintage Calatrava for me - jumbo size, manual wind, no-date just floats my boat (along with the other manual-wind jumbo vintage watches in the collection). I’ve since been looking at other vintage Calatravas, and it’s a rather deep rabbit hole… ;-)

Thanks for reading!

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