quattro
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The “Macau” Calatrava
The handover of Macau from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China (PRC) officially occurred at midnight on 20 December 1999.
The official ceremony was held at midnight at the Macao Cultural Centre Garden purpose-built Temporary Pavilion.
This event ended 442 years of Portuguese rule in the former settlement, which began in 1557.
On this occasion, Patek Philippe made a 30-piece limited commemorative edition of its Calatrava ref. 5026.
It featured, positioned symmetrically in relation to the small seconds sub-dial at 4 o'clock, a commemorative date sub-dial at 8 o'clock.
As any other ref. 5026, the watch was powered by automatic micro-rotor caliber 240/151.
The rose gold case measures 33.5 mm diameter and the dial is characterised as “ivory”.
The exact reference number of this limited edition was 5026R-014.
As a comparison, here is a regular ref. 5026R, without the commemorative sub-dial.
credit: Portuguese historical Museum (1), Macau Timepiece Museum, watch on loan from the private collections of Mr. Huo Feile (2 & 6-8), Breguetcamera (3-5), Antiquorum (9) & @watch4lyfe.id (10-12)
How do you like this limited commemorative edition?
Thanks for looking.
Best, Emmanuel
The “Macau” Calatrava
The handover of Macau from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China (PRC) officially occurred at midnight on 20 December 1999 . The official ceremony was held at midnight at the Macao Cultural Centre Garden purpose-built Temporary Pavilio...
Is there another dial with a date stamp on it?
i dont think i seen one before, such a strange concept, but i do get the significance of that day.
Always been a fan of this reference, quattro.
And the warm, special dial looks good. The size suits some of us just fine (adore my ref. 5000 which is pretty much the same, I think).
The dimensions are similar I think,
but the 5026 has a flat bezel and the case is a little more angular, whereas everything is smooth and rounded in the 5000... Best, Emmanuel
The regular dial is indeed better.
Still, nice to see that this one exists. Best, Emmanuel
A nice little piece of history 👌🏻👍🏻
Have to say that I rather like how they balanced the small sub seconds with the plaque. I have been looking at the regular dial version after and it looked as if it had something missing after seeing the Macau one first. Not sure I would feel the same had...
I also think they did a pretty nice design job
and I like the fact that it is reminiscent of observatory dials. Only 30 examples, so not easy to find, I guess. And, of course, this date means more to some than to me!
Wow I have never seen this reference.
It’s beautiful. Love the seconds subdial, breguet numerals and hands and the microrotor movement. Whats not to love?!?
Hi Emmanuel, I like the symmetry of this commenmorative piece for Macau !
The applied Brequet numeral is also stylish, making this piece very lovely. Using the added subdial for the commenmorative message is a good design. Wish that a limited edition was made for the Hong Kong handover in 1997, such as the ones with enamel moti...
