Patek Philippe is expanding its range of travel watches and complications for everyday use with a new Calatrava model equipped with the Travel Time dual time zone function and distinguished by its 24-hour display. The new caliber 31-260 PS FUS 24H self-winding movement – a concentration of technical innovations that improve performance and ease of use –comes in an elegant rose-gold case with a navy-blue dial and strap.
Among the numerous complications available in the Patek Philippe collections, the exclusive Travel Time system for the display of a second time zone (with two center hour hands, one of which can be adjusted backwards or forwards in one-hour steps) has met with great success, owing to its ease of operation and excellent legibility.
The manufacture has already paired it to great effect with a variety of styles and dial designs, whether in the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time (Ref. 5524G-001 and 5524R-001) or the elegantly sporty Nautilus Travel Time Chronograph (Ref. 5990/1A-011 and 5990/1R-001) or the modern, sporty and chic men’s Aquanaut Travel Time (Ref. 5164A-001 and 5164R-001) and ladies’ Aquanaut Luce Travel Time (Ref. 5269/200R-001).
And not forgetting the Grand Complication Alarm Travel Time model (Ref. 5520P-001), the Annual Calendar Travel Time (Ref. 5326G-001) – and the two new Calatrava Pilot Travel Time chronographs Ref. 5924G-001 and 5924G-010, also launched this spring.
All the hours of the day and night
Patek Philippe is broadening this vast selection of Travel Time dual time zone watches with a new Calatrava model featuring an original display of local time and home time by two center hands turning on a 24-hour circle.
The manufacture has already used 24-hour displays in the past, notably on the Chronometro Gondolo watches produced in the early twentieth century for the Brazilian retailer Gondolo & Labouriau. One of these, a pocket watch made in 1905, is now exhibited in the Patek Philippe Museum (No. P-527). For the new Ref. 5224R-001, the designers have reinterpreted this type of indication in a resolutely modern spirit. They have also chosen to place noon at 12 o’clock, rather than at 6 o’clock as is usually the case, thereby ensuring excellent legibility throughout the daytime hours.
A new self-winding movement
To provide these functions, Patek Philippe’s engineers took the 31-260 ultra-thin self-winding base caliber and added a 24-hour mechanism and a Travel Time mechanism.
This movement, launched in 2011 in the Annual Calendar Regulator Ref. 5235 (caliber 31-260 REG QA) was entirely reworked in 2021 for the In-Line Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5236P-001 (caliber 31-260 PS QL). It was given an operating frequency of 4 Hz (28, 800 semi-oscillations per hour), a 20 per cent increase in barrel-spring torque, a mini-rotor in platinum (heavier than gold) boosting the winding power and a reduction wheel that uncouples the self-winding mechanism when the watch is being manually wound and thus reduces wear.
In 2022, Patek Philippe reworked this movement again for the Annual Calendar Travel Time Ref. 5326G-001 (caliber 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H) and developed several innovations, leading to eight patent applications. The new caliber 31-260 PS FUS 24H movement housed in Ref. 5224R-001 benefits from three of those patents, aimed at optimizing efficiency, rate accuracy, durability, safety and ease of use.
A patented correction system by the crown
Visible through a transparent sapphire-crystal back, the new self-winding caliber 31-260 PS FUS 24H movement with mini-rotor in platinum makes it possible to provide a case whose elegant finesse (9.85 m high) is perfectly suited to a Calatrava model.
To preserve the sleek lines, Patek Philippe also replaced the traditional correction pushers for local time on the left-hand flank of the case with a patented correction system using the crown pulled out to the intermediate position (backwards and forwards adjustment in one-hour steps). This device is modeled on the one used in 2022 in Ref. 5326G-001. The fully polished rose-gold case, 42 mm in diameter, was inspired by that of the Calatrava Weekly Calendar Ref. 5212A-001 launched in 2019 and is distinguished by its curved two-tier lugs.
A refined, legible dial
The navy-blue dial shines by its elegance and legibility, enhanced by a double railway-track scale for the hours and minutes. The 24-hour display, with its alternating Arabic numerals and hour markers and its cabochon 5-minute markers, represents a total of 44 rose-gold appliques – polished together to obtain the same brilliance and applied individually by hand.
The Travel Time dual time zone is displayed by three syringe-shaped hands in rose gold, with a luminescent coating for the local hour hand and the minute hand and a pierced center for the home hour hand. Refined finishing touches create beautiful plays of light on the dial: a circular striated center, a circular satin-finished hour circle and a snailed small-seconds counter with a rose-gilt outline.
A navy-blue calfskin strap with a nubuck finish and contrasting cream stitching echoes the color of the dial. It is secured by a prong buckle in rose gold.
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