Patek Philippe

descartes1
2985

• Show profile
• Show other posts

The Patek world timers — all of the them— rightfully get a lot of love here.

As many here may recall, I owned a 5110p and for many years it was a love affair.

But I found myself wearing it less and less because my lifestyle caused me to gravitate more to sport watch, especially when traveling.

Also, the size of the 5110 became less and less appealing I think mostly because on an everyday basis I generally wear Rolex sport watches which, having rising to “super-case” dimensions made the 37mm world timer feel that much smaller.

So, I sold the 5110p a couple years ago.

But I have really missed it.

This week, I made up for my past mistake by acquiring another platinum world timer- this time it’s the 5130p.

I think the 39.5 mm size works much better for me.

As far as aesthetics go, I think the 5110 is just about perfect but the 5130 is very, very close. Indeed, the sunburst guilloche of the 5130 gives it an appealing ethereal quality which the 5110 doesn’t have. It’s almost like a diamond as the sun reflects off the sunburst at different angles. (I also think the 5130 is nicer in the real than in photos. It is hard to capture its magic in a photo).

Any small difference in appeal is made up for by the better (for me) size, the gorgeous and interesting hour hand, and the flatness with which it sits on the wrist.

I should add that I also carefully considered the 5230p and g references. Even though on paper I thought the 5230 might be the perfect compromise on size I found that it wore smaller than its numerical diameter because of the absence of crown guards and slightly thicker case.

The case on the 5130/5110 is just sublime. The sculptural style is almost like melted metal on one’s wrist. It is truly from an era which in my opinion was a high point for Patek in case design and there are few other cases which have such a sensuous quality.

I think this one will stay in the collection for good…