Introducing: The Patek Philippe Reference 5978P - A Brand New Perpetual Calendar Chronograph! (Live Pics)
Reporting directly from Milan, we have a brand-new watch from Patek Philippe, and man, this is a big one. For only the seventh time in the 187 years of the world's most important high-end watchmaker, we have a new perpetual calendar chronograph! The 1518 was shown in 1941, the 2499 in 1951, the 3970 in 1986, the 5020 (forgot about that one, didnt ya!?) in 1994, the 5970 in 2004, and the 5270 in 2011 – which means this new watch, the reference 5978P, is only the second to be shown in my entire career covering this space. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear about it! Say hello to the 5978P. For only the seventh time in 187 years, we have a new perpetual calendar chronograph! What you're looking at is something so familiar, and yet so different. It is the first hand-wound perpetual chronograph to feature an instantaneous calendar mechanism, all shown in windows along a curved arch at the top of the dial, making the watch immensely legible, much more so than any previous PPC to date. The instantaneous jumping – which happens within 30 milliseconds – is one heck of a party trick. If you're thinking this looks like something you may have seen in the 5208 or 5308 Grand Complications, you'd be exactly right. The long and short is that Patek has taken that ingenious instantaneous perpetual calendar mechanism from its big, big dog watches and applied it to the base chronograph caliber CH 29-535 that powers Patek's finest watches. It makes a shocking amount of sen...
Quill & Pad
