Patek Philipe Ref. 5104 First Look

Patek Philippe
Ref. 5104
Grand Complication

by Ron DeCorte

September, 2006

This is a an exclusive preview of the new Patek Ref:5104 Grand Complication. You might have seen a prototype, or more precisely a work-in-progress, at Basel ’06 but we will now take a closer look.

Note: I should point out that there was only one complete example of this watch available for photography during my visit at Patek in August 2006 and it was only by chance that I had a very short time to make the few photographs contained in this article. A more complete photo documentation and technical review should be forthcoming in the near future.

To be exact the 5104 is something totally new from Patek. I guess we are getting accustom to the fact that Patek is changing the game and are proud of that fact. From first glance you know, as Patek says, “This isn’t your father’s Patek”.

Grand Complication is a traditional term used to describe a watch with at least three complications, but not just any complications. Exactly when and where this term was coined is difficult to say and there are as many different references given as there are reference materials. In my personal opinion, and after spending countless hours talking with elder watchmakers in Switzerland, the term was most likely a code-of-honor agreed over a table littered with many empty bottles of wine and a haze of pipe tobacco. And what exactly are the three complications that would qualify a watch to be called a Grand Complication?

In all most every case the watch needed to be a striking watch, a minute repeater or grand sonnerie. While quarter and half-quarter repeaters did not seem to fit these criteria.
A split seconds chronograph was certainly considered acceptable. Simple chronographs were usually not.
Complex calendar mechanisms such as perpetual and/or retrograde made the grade. Simple calendars, day/date/moon-phase, usually did not.
Other complications such as; sunrise/sunset, star charts, equation of time, etc, etc, have been incorporated into Grand Complications.
I should also mention the tourbillon in this context. Traditionally the tourbillon was not used as part of the Grand Complication theme since it was considered a complication for the sole purpose of accurate time keeping. Calendars, chronographs, and other such mechanisms drain power from the watch at different stages of the day and would certainly influence the accuracy of the watch. And any type of striking mechanism would also take influence of accuracy via the vibration it produces during the striking process.

So, pick any three, or more, of the above complications and construct your Grand Complication, it’s not as easy as you might think! In this case Patek has chosen the following complications for their new Grand Complication; minute repeater, perpetual calendar, retrograde date indication, and a very accurate age of the moon system. The base movement is automatic winding with 38 – 48 hours of power reserve.

Starting with the dial side it is easy to see this is not a typical dial. Instead there is a dial ring, or chapter ring, with markers for the hours, minutes, and the date. The chapter ring is actually a part of the dial coated via a blue metalization process. Four small round sapphire dials occupy most of the rest of the dial area. At 12 is the year dial that shows the leap year cycle of four years, at 3 are the months, at 6 is the moon phase indication, and at 9 are the days. Now, you might at first glance be inclined to think these small dials actually rotate but they do not. Instead there is a small black hand under each dial that highlights the appropriate markings on the stationary dials.

The retrograde date hand, with its red crescent pointer, moves through an arc of about 240 degrees in the lower dial space each month. At the end of each month, be it 28, 29, 30, or 31 days the retrograde hand is instantly returned to 1. This may sound like a simple operation but is quite a difficult complication.

Age of the moon, or moon phases; this is something that could easily be overlooked in the Patek 5104 Grand Complication but deserves a close look. By far most watches ever produced have used a simplistic mechanism for indicating the moon phase. A simple half circle aperture in the dial and a disk that makes one complete revolution every 59 days (approximately every two lunar cycles or 29.5 days) was/is the norm. But in reality this is not a correct calculation, close but not exact. On average the moon changes from full to full every 29days, 12hours, 44minutes, and 3seconds. This is called a synodic period. If we do a little math we can see that the simplistic mechanism is about 44 minutes per month in arrearage, or about 9.13 hours per year. Patek has addressed this matter via a complex series of wheels and pinions and managed to reduce the error to less than 12 minutes per year, more than 45 times more accurate than a simplistic moon phase. In long term chronology the Patek 5104 age of the moon indication will require one day of adjustment every 122 years. If we extrapolate things slightly further you might be one full moon cycle off in about 3,500 years!

From the back the Patek 5104 exposes its off-center winding rotor of 22K rose gold and ornate finishing, typical of Patek Philippe. However, the rotor is not "typical" since it represents a replica of the case filigree of as a matter of continuity.

I would like to leave you with some photographs of the case. This is something quite unusual for a wristwatch or any other watch of recent memory. The case is 0.950 platinum and the inlaid filigree is of 18K gold. I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to the Patek Philippe 5104 Grand Complication. Remember a more technical review should be forthcoming in the next few months with more detailed pictures as well.

You may read the official Patek Philippe press release for the Ref. 5104 by clicking here.

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