At its sixth-annual Watch Art Grand Exhibition in Tokyo, Patek unveiled a trio of new complications of which the Quadruple Complication, in a limited edition of fifteen pieces, was the centrepiece.

The new Ref. 5308P-010 Quadruple Complication is an update of the Ref. 5208 Triple Complication Reference (2011), with said complications being a minute repeater, instantaneous perpetual calendar, and split-seconds chronograph.

The 42mm sized case is platinum, with a thickness of 17.7mm and features a Top Wesselton Pure diamond (0.02 carat) set between the lugs at 6 o’clock. The chronograph monopusher is at 2 o’clock and split-seconds pusher is at 4 o’clock.

It has two interchangeable case backs, one in sapphire crystal with transfer-printed inscription “Patek Philippe Tokyo”, the other in solid platinum engraved with the same inscription. Through it you can see the automatic in-house Calibre R CHR 27 PS QI, which beats 21,600 VPH and a power reserve of 48 hours. The unidirectional rotor is platinum.

Let’s go to the complications. Alongside the hour and minutes, a small seconds and a moonphase, the minute repeater strikes on two gongs. The monopusher split-seconds chronograph function has 60-minute and 12-hour counters on the dial. The perpetual calendar’s indications are in an aperture format, with day, date, month, leap year and day/ night.

The dial is rose-gilt opaline on 18kt white gold with eleven 
baton-style applied hour markers in 18kt charcoal-gray white gold. There are triple-faceted dauphine hour and minute hands in 18kt charcoal-gray white gold. The chronograph and split-seconds hands are charcoal-gray steel. The small-seconds, 60-minute counter hand and 12-hour counter hand are all baton in 18kt charcoal-gray white gold. The apertures for the date, day and month have diamond-polished inlaid frames in 18kt charcoal-gray white gold. The railway-track minute scale is black transfer printed.

The Quadruple Complication comes on a shiny chocolate brown alligator leather strap with a platinum clasp.

The other two new pieces presented at the same time were variants of the World Time. The first is the Ref. 5513R, which adds a minute repeater that has a chime that activates when it is 12 o’clock at the local time zone. The Japan reference is an enamel depiction of the Chuo district of Tokyo in the centre of the dial. The other new World Time iteration is the Ref. 5530G. Limited to 300 pieces, it has a deep purple coloured dial and a selected local time zone at 12 o’clock that is synced with the date indication. There is a red dot at 12 o’clock in a nod to the Japanese flag.

[Photo credit: Patek Philippe]

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