Speaking of the best, the hand-wound Patek Philippe Caliber CH 29-535 PS is indeed among the best quintessential luxury chronograph movements, leaving no room for differing tastes or arguments. The technically inferior horizontal clutch makes for an aesthetically superior caseback – those two constantly linked wheels on the left hand side of the movement on the picture above swivel ever so slightly to mesh with the chronograph seconds’ center wheel when the chronograph is initiated.
The column wheel is hidden under a highly polished cap as seen on the image directly above. It is an eccentric cap that allows for the fine-tuning of the aforementioned clutch – as you can see, there is a rather beautifully curved arm that connects the two meshing wheels with the column wheel itself. When the chronograph’s start pusher is engaged, the column wheel under the cap rotates, hence dropping this arm in between the column wheel’s columns, therefore moving the second of the two driving wheels slightly so that it begins to mesh with the wheel in the center. The distance traveled by this arm requires painstaking fine-tuning, something this cap is to assist with – though I’d still prefer to see a well-working chronograph with an exposed column wheel. I feel that’s enough column wheel talk for the day.
The beauty of a hand-wound chronograph is that you get to have all the eye-candy. There isn’t a fiddly rotor always in the way. Power reserve of the CH 29-535 PS is at least 65 hours, allowing the Gyromax balance and Breguet-style hairspring to do their 4Hz ballet for well over two days. Sixty-five hours is enough to make the 5170P last from Friday evening till Monday morning – a feat every high-end watch wider than 36mm should provide.
All the functionality aside, the 29-535 is so beautiful, I’d go so far as to say it’s a must have in every collector’s career. Not necessarily a lifetime keeper, but a benchmark for every modern high-end chronograph. None should be a copy of this, don’t get me wrong, but any changes done to this layout and these proportions should be supported by solid reasons – enhanced functionality, higher performance, etc. Few movements bother with proportions, let alone proportions against case size, but here things are just right. The massive balance wheel seen in Patek chronographs of old certainly add a more traditional flair, but if you want modern frequency and balance wheel design, you have to accept a smaller balance as a reasonable compromise.
Returning to the dial side just for one more serious passing, the Patek Philippe 5170P is an interesting beast. The watch market as it is suffers no shortage of platinum-clad, diamond-brazen watches – but something is telling me no one in the hippie-hoppie music industry will be seen rocking the 5170P in any of their videos anytime soon. No, the 5170P is more like a wealthy grandpa with diamond cufflinks: weird, but face-to-face you’ll probably want to keep your opinion to yourself.
The Patek Philippe 5170P is interesting because I can imagine it to be way over the top for some, and rather stale in the eyes of many others. On a personal note, after all is said and done, I actually think it is just right. It is, because it takes that stealth-wealth single lug-diamond and full platinum nonsense to another level by proudly showing some of the lion’s teeth on the front. I mean, without the diamonds and in lowly rose gold, this already is a ~$75k watch, so why not let it live a little?
Last thing worth considering is how there can be a certain charm to brilliantly executed watches from big brands that nevertheless show off a little – and the 5170P is close to being a solid example at that. However, when we speak of brilliance in execution, reflective crystals really shouldn’t be part of the discussion. Legibility should not be sacrificed for any reason, and that’s exactly why the baguette markers work so well: they function to design while also being exorbitantly unnecessary and luxurious. The same cannot be said about the ruined crystal. I understand it supposedly works in the boutique, but it’s an inexplicable and total fail everywhere else. It’s like rocking this watch with a perfect tux – and then walking everywhere with a stain on your lapel.
In summary, I find the 5170P to be one of the more interesting recent novelties from the brand, worth noting because it packs a quintessential Patek Philippe chronograph caliber with a great dial and, thanks to its diamonds, “a touch of class” – as Basil Fawlty would call it. Price for the Patek Philippe 5170P chronograph in platinum is 85,000 CHF. patek.com
