PATEK PHILIPPE CALATRAVA PILOT TRAVEL TIME REF. 5524G
Launched in 2015, the ref. 5524G is a watch that is greatly misunderstood and the subject of hot debates in the collecting community. However, the deeper the collecting community digs into the rabbit hole of online discussion, the more ‘secrets’ are revealed about this reference. Inspired by Patek’s historical (yet on small scale) contribution to aviation history, this watch brings a look to the modern Patek Philippe line that many of us were waiting for. However, its design surprised and shocked us back in 2015! The watch has a dual time zone mechanism indicating local and home time, and local and home day/night indication in the apertures. According to the press release from Baselworld, “The elaborate 294-part movement ticks beneath a dial that unlike conventional aviators’ watches is not black but instead stands out with a noble dark navy blue lacquer that resembles the body paint of American fighter planes in the 1930s. Thanks to large applied Arabic numerals in white gold and broad baton-style steel hands with Superluminova coatings, the local time is easily and clearly legible, both during the day and at night. In the typical Travel Time style, the home-time hour hand is skeletonized and remains discreetly in the background. It is hidden beneath the prominent local-time hour hand as long as local and home time are identical. The white-gold clevis prong buckle follows the theme. It was inspired by the harnesses worn by pilots to keep their survival kits and parachutes readily deployable without hampering their freedom of movement.”
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