There it is – the 2015 Patek Philippe Perpetual Chronograph ref. 5270R. The first 5270 in a metal other than white gold (apart from the 5971P) and the third attempt at a lay-out for the much-discussed dial.

I must admit I am somewhat lost for words. I don’t think there has been any Patek Philippe before that has had such major and fundamental changes to its dial design.

First there was the version sans tachymeter: the original 2011 5270G-001. It was the first perpetual calendar chronograph to be powered by an in-house movement: the newly conceived CH 29-535 PS Q.

Than in October 2013, the KunstWerkUhr 5270G-015 was introduced. This model featured a silver dial with blue accents and marked the return of the tachymeter. It was introduced to commemorate the Munich KunstWerkUhr exhibition, celebrating the history of Patek Philippe. On this limited edition of 50 pieces, the seconds track was designed to fold around the date scale at six, resulting in a design feature that would become known as the ‘double chin’.

The limited edition KunstWerkUhr was accompanied by the regular collection 5270G-013 with silver dial and the 5270g-014 with blue dial some two months later – both of them featuring said ‘double chin’.

At BaselWorld 2014 however, the diamond-studded 5971P was added to the collection. The date scale now overlapped the seconds track, doing away with the unusual design feature that caused so much debate. And now for 2015, there is the 5270R-001: a regular collection 5270 with tachymeter, though sans ‘double chin’.

So now what? It seems that Patek Philippe listened to the comments posed by its collectors and gave way to a more traditional design for the 5270. Filling the shoes left by the much-coveted 5970 seems to have been a task slightly underestimated..

With day 1 of BaselWorld 2015 coming to an end, I think its time for a first recap. Below I’ll be posting some (perhaps random) thoughts on a few of the watches uploaded to the WatchBase database and I’ll try to do this more often – if I can find the time.

The 2015 Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon collection

Pictured above and consisting of the Black Black, the Pitch Black, the Sedna Black and the Vintage Black, I think it’s a bold and interesting move for Omega to release all four in one single take. Why?

If released four consecutive years, Omega would seem to be taking the easy way with changing minor details on a winning model. People, customers, WE, would probably tire of it rather quickly. With his new play however, Omega changes the game to an exercise in details, offering us an instant look into the mind of the manufacturer and the infinite possibilities that a canvas like the original Dark Side of the Moon can offer. It’s as if bloggers Photoshop dreams were made reality.

The Oris Divers Sixty-Five

This one I love. It’s a true product of passion. I first heard of this project back at BaselWorld 2014 when the Oris brand manager for the Netherlands -an avid collector himself- told me he was trying to convince his superiors to build a watch based on a vintage model in his collection. One year later, the outcome couldn’t have been better. It’s charming, it’s affordable, it’s cool.

The Breitling SuperOcean II

With the 2014 return of the Colt with the signature Breitling bezel and the recent release of the Colt Chronograph automatic, one could easily see Breitling returning the SuperOcean back to its roots as well. However, the brand seems to be determined to give this line its own look, sticking to the bezel with rubber inlay as introduced back in 2010. However, for the dial, they now did look back at their heritage. And it looks good! While the B01 is a stunning movement, for the bigger part it’s this kind of reasonable priced watches that made Breitling for the last decade or two. I like ‘m. They’re now available in either 36, 42 or 44mm – and as is customary with Breitling, the options when it comes to case/dial/strap combinations are sheer endless.

The Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time

This one we admittedly scooped earlier just like the Oris Divers Sixty-Five, but who can resist commenting on THE Patek that is bound to stir some controversy in the coming weeks/months/years? I will stay to a macro level with my comments for the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G. Look at it this way – when a brand puts out to many models based on previous stuff, they’re often branded to conservative, lacking imagination, drawing to heavily on their heritage – this is mostly the case with Patek and Rolex. However, when and if introducing something DIFFERENT, it’s as if the world is set on fire – THIS? They can not possibly be serious! I applaud Patek for branching out and trying something different – although I’m not quite sure why they’d put in the Calatrava name. Yes, it’s something else. No, it’s not Patek Philippe as you know it. But it’s CASUAL CHIC in capitals. Sprezzatura in the Agnelli type of way.

The Patek 5270R

Skip it. This is too good. I’m writing a separate post on this one.

The Rolex Day-Date 40

This is just stellar. Those of you that know me know that the Day-Date is one of my favorite watches EVER. The Day-Date II in my opinion was perhaps not the best of Rolex’ releases. The proportions just do not seem right. With the new Day-Date 40 however, they seem to have found a way to fit the DD with a larger case without ruining its classics looks. I think its a stunner. Should I end here, or should we talk about the new movement, caliber 3255, that features no less than 14 new and patented technological solutions? View the collection here.

In the last couple of days, I’ve again added a huge number of watches and movements to our database. Also, a few smaller (though great ) changes have been made by Alwin and Dion- both functional as well as some design thingamalingies.

With the intend of keeping things interesting, both for myself as well as for you, I have been trying to find some kind of middle road between a high volume of easy uploads and unusual and indie watches. The former are mostly ETA-based brands, whose watches are quickly uploaded in bulk as they use standard (or moderately altered) movements already in our database – Hamilton, Longines and Bell & Ross come to mind.

Others, like Vacheron, Patek, Lange, and Audemars Piguet, require custom movement uploads. It is however interesting to note that the info on these is readily available and very well sorted, hugely decreasing the time needed to sort out the information needed to fill all our fields. Patek and Vacheron take the reigns here, sorting their watches if desired by movement used, with full specs and info on all. While I haven’t really taken on Vacheron yet, our Patek database is starting to be quite something – although most are from the current collection.

Speake-Marin has been fun and I think only the Triad pieces need to be added from his current line-up. It’s a pity I can’t seem to locate pics of all his movements, but I applaud his open communication regarding the use of Vaucher movements. I’ve also begun to work on Lang & Heyne.. since we’re trying to add all, why not add a few unusual ones right at the start, right? Also, check out the Daytona page for a first taste of vintage.

Alwin and Dion have been adding a new function to the Calibers pages, which shows what we’re after – clear and open information with as much cross references as possible. It is now possible to view which calibers use a certain movement as a base – get a taste of it at the ETA 2824-2 page. While obviously a lot more movements need to be added to make it truly interesting, it is already a fun feature. They’ve also cleaned up the Brands and Calibers pages – the lay-out is much more clear than it was before.

Ok, back to work

Browsing by caliber?

The unique structure that we’ve created when masterminding WatchBase makes it possible to browse by caliber and quickly get an overview of all watches that have used said movement – well, at least the ones we’ve added to our database.

One movement of which I’m pretty sure that I’ve got a near complete list of watches for is the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph caliber CH 28-520 IRM QA 24H. I think only one reference of 5960 or 5961 is missing.. Can you tell which one?

PS – should you happen to know the reference number of the sapphire-set 5961, please let me know!

Yay!

We just finished uploading the current collection of caliber 240-based Patek Philippes. As we’re sure all of you connoisseurs are aware, these include the World Time models, the 5140 Perpetual Calendars, the Celestial and the Nautilus with moonphase, date, power reserve and small seconds. Have fun browsing!

Caliber 240 in its most original form was introduced back in 1977 and it’s been powering a large number of Patek Philippe models ever since. From simple two-handed watches to small and grand complications – this little engine that could has seen them all.