The basel curveball
Smartwatches were inevitable; it’s Patek’s pilot watch that surprised
EVERY year at the Baselworld trade fair, there is something – usually controversial – on everyone’s lips. The fact it was Patek Philippe this March is controversy enough, before you even consider the watch in question. For while Patek is far from predictable, this ultra-classical grande dame of haute horlogerie is certainly above shameless peacocking or headline-grabbing. So, while casual observers might simply have breezed over the perfectly smart, beautifully made new Calatrava Pilot Travel Time ref. 5524 (£31,120), keener observers were struggling to resist readjusting their sets. Yes, this really is an oversized vintage-styled pilot’s watch from that bastion of the understated dress watch. It’s a bold and divisive move from a brand hardly known for its conquest of the skies, despite a couple of shelved developments buried in its Geneva museum. Even more confusingly, its dark navy-blue lacquer dial is said to resemble “the body paint of American fighter planes in the 1930s”. Either way, whatever you might think of a white-gold pilot’s watch from Patek Philippe, it’s bound to be in hot demand and is bound be a future collectible. In the metal, it’s a devilishly handsome beast, too, from the voluptuous luminescent numerals worthy of Biggles and co., to the second-time-zone crowns on the left side, which screw down to avoid knocks in the cockpit.
patek.com