As we discussed in our coverage of the new Nautilus 5980, a handful of Patek Philippe’s releases this year feature a lovely shade of grey-blue. One of those watches is the Aquanaut Travel Time ref. 5164G which is presented in white gold for the first time. A nice and bright interpretation of the world-trotting watch compared the dark brown and rose gold editions that have come before.
As the case has been rendered in white gold for the first time, let’s start there. It measures 40.8mm in diameter with the classic porthole shape it shares with the Nautilus. Although its profile is a little less severe due to having more traditionally shaped lugs even though the composite strap is still integrated and smaller crown guards. The white gold provides a bright silver colour and high lustre that’s very attractive. Completing the design of the case are two pushers built into the left-hand side that control the travel time complication.
By pushing one of the buttons you can advance the local time hour hand forward by an hour and by pushing the other, it moves back an hour. Allowing you to quickly adjust the watch to your new time zone without losing any accuracy or fiddling with the setting of the second time zone. If you’re unfamiliar with Patek’s travel time watches, they operate in a similar manner to a GMT in that they display multiple time zones at the same time.
However, instead of having a separate 24-hour hand with corresponding scale, they use two hour hands (one solid for local time and one skeletonised for the secondary time) that correlate to the main 12-hour scale. A pair of home and away day/night indicators then serves to inform you which part of the 24-hour cycle is being displayed. It’s a lot more subtle than a GMT display because when you don’t require the use of an additional time zone, you can hide the second hour hand beneath the primary one.
Completing the display is the date subdial at 6 o’clock featuring a smaller version of the globe-like engraving seen across the rest of the dial. I’m not a huge fan of the pattern compared to the horizontal grooves of the Nautilus. It reminds me too much of the Pan Am logo to be cool. Although considering it’s a travel complication, perhaps that is appropriate.
The movement powering the Travel Time Ref. 5164G White Gold is the calibre 26‑330 S C FUS. A 45-hour power reserve movement that features the titular travel time complication and date. Interestingly the date is coupled with the local time display meaning that when you jump the hour hand across the boundary of a day, the date will change correspondingly. You can see the movement through the exhibition caseback with its Côtes de Genève finishing and golden rotor.
With the precious metal case, it’s no surprise that the watch is priced at £54,000. Ultimately this is a case and dial colour update for an existing model so it’s not the craziest release in the world. In fact, a lot of internet chatter has been in regard to the fact that Patek’s release slate isn’t all that impressive this year. I definitely feel like they could have pushed their designs further but at the same time, I do like the understated style of the blue-grey watches.
Price and Specs:
More details at Patek Philippe.
