Patek Philippe World Time 5131R

$95,500

Introduced in 2008, the reference 5131 features the World Time complication while showcasing the brand’s artisanal excellence with a hand-painted cloisonne enamel dial centre.

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This is the Patek Philippe World Time 5131R. Founded in 1839, Patek Philippe is a name synonymous with high horology. A company that has always been privately owned, Patek has been manufacturing watches for almost two centuries without interruption. The company is currently owned by the Stern family, whose heritage dates to when they were supplying dials to Patek in the 1920s.

While the sports models tend to steal the spotlight, the brand’s true expertise lies in its complicated timepieces. With the introduction of the world’s first split-second chronograph in the 1920s and the subsequent introductions of the first perpetual calendar, it is evident that an instrumental reason for the brand’s success and longevity lies in its ability to produce complications at a high level. The first World Time by Patek Philippe was the reference 1415 introduced 1939 based Louis Cottier’s 1931 creation and all the subsequent World Time references were based on the renowned Cottier-style mechanism.

The third variant of the 5131 to be introduced following the yellow and white gold references, the Patek Philippe 5131R was launched by the brand in 2014 under the hallowed Rare Handcrafts umbrella. With each metal representing a different region of the world, the reference sets itself apart with its cloisonne enamel dial featuring a map of the Earth in the centre bordered by a static outer ring. Highly intuitive and functional, the reference is powered by the automatic Cal. 240 HU that allows for an easy change of the time zone with the pusher at the 10. The back of the watch reveals the automatic Cal. 240 HU that remains surprisingly thin given the complication, allowing for a reasonable case thinness of 10.6mm.

Despite the storied history of the World Time, it remains an overlooked complication in the brand’s vast catalogue of watches. A reference that showcases Patek Philippe’s artisanal and mechanical proficiencies, it pays tribute to the ingenuity of Louis Cottier’s invention in a way only the brand can do.