Patek Philippe Calatrava 5212A Weekly Calendar Review

When the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5212A was introduced in the Basel World 2019, it was the talk of the town because of the first ever weekly calendar by Patek, very novel dial design and the stainless steel case material which is quite rare in the Calatrava line.  It is truly a modern day masterpiece which showcased once again the innovative side of the storied top watchmaker. 

5212A is capable of displaying time, date, day of the week, week number, and the month, which are accomplished by 5 hands and 4 rings.  The innermost ring is for the day of the week as indicated by one hand with a red hammer.  The next ring is for the time with 3 hands.  The 3rd ring is for the week number ranging from 1 to 53 (most years include 52 weeks, but for some years there are 53 weeks).  The 4th and outermost ring is for the month.  The date is presented in the aperture at 3 o’clock.  The design and layout of the dial must be iterated countless times, as the result is just perfect, in terms of readability and clarity.  One may get the time quickly, while glancing to see the date, day of week, week number and month whenever needed.  

The unique part of the dial is the hand-writing fonts used on the dial for the words and numbers.  These hand-writing fonts are based on the actual hand-writing of a Patek designer.  The choice of fonts was first ever in the watch history, and the impression I got was that the timepiece is a real piece of art and there were many craftsmen behind it.  It just gave “hand-finishing” a whole new meaning.  One interesting thing is that for the whole alphabet, there are a few letters that are missing, namely “K”, “Q”, “X’ and “Z”.  In other words, we don’t know the designer’s hand-writing on these four letters.  While all the numbers on the dial are odd numbers, the numbers for the date include the even numbers.  

Turning the watch over, a stunning new movement is displayed fully behind the sapphire crystal.  The new caliber is named “26-330 S C J SE” and it is based on the 324 movement.  There are a lot of new improvements and innovations, in addition to the new week number complication.  To learn more about the technical details, you may refer to the introduction video by Patek listed below. To indicate that this is a major upgrade from the 324 movement released in 2004, a new rotor was introduced with circular shape, rather than the angular shape in previous movement.  One notable difference is that this new movement provides a hacking function, which is not available in most Patek movements.  Hacking is a desirable feature especially for some watch collectors who like to set the watches by the correct time.   Patek must figure out a way to not to hurt the escapement in any way by enabling the hacking.

The meanings of the reference number 5212A & caliber “26-330 S C J SE”

A: steel (Acier) 

S: Sweeping second hand

C: date indicator (Calendar)

J: Day indicator (Jour)

SE: Week indicator (Semaine)

The weekly calendar is a very rare complication and the only other watch with this function that I have seen was an Audemars Piguet limited edition piece.     The weekly calendar is useful in manufacturing and government for the ease of making plans.  It is much easier to line up the weeks in a year, rather than using months who have different days.  Normally there are 52 weeks in a year, but once in every 6 years, there is one year with 53 weeks.   That is why there are 53 weeks on the dial.  I have found a special use of the weekly calendar together with day of week.  The company I work for issues pay-check every 2 weeks.  However, it is often easy to lose track of the week we get paid.  With this timepiece, I know that I will get paid on the Friday of an even number week.  

Being one of the “Holy Trinity”, Patek Philippe is a brand that I often admired from a distance. As a watch lover, adding the Patek weekly calendar to my collection is a dream came true.  When I was told over the phone by the AD that this watch was available, I could not believe my ears.   My father once told me his regret not purchasing a Patek 20+ years ago when there was a Patek AD near their home in Columbus, Ohio.  This is the first Patek in our family and I’m sure that it will stay in the family for a long time.  And not just any Patek, but a rare and extremely sought after timepiece that showcases the style and engineering of Patek craftsmen in their pursuit to reach the pinnacle of watchmaking art.