Review – Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524R – A Time For Reconciliation
Let’s be honest… The Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G (the white gold version) was a hot topic of discussion when launched at Baselworld 2015. Whatever the intrinsic qualities of this watch, it has been misunderstood. Too early, too radical, too different maybe. 3 years have passed now and there’s a new version in the collection, now in rose gold with a warm brown dial, under the ref. 5524R. With this new combination of colours, we think it’s time for the reconciliation. Let’s have a closer look at the now very-Patekish Rose gold Calatrava Pilot.
Editor’s note: Work. It’s one of life’s unavoidable necessities. And for us watch folk, a place that if we’re not careful, our choice of wrist-wear and love of watches can lead to a spot of trouble. Especially now, when the year’s brand-new releases are hitting the storefronts and there is research and shortlisting to be done. While HR are no use, we have your back here at T+T. And although we can’t help you towards an early retirement, or even write you a sick note, we can help you hide your obsession in the office with these 9 helpful hints from Mr Andy Green. Odds are that if you’ve found your way to our website and landed on an article titled ‘How to hide your watch obsession’ then you’re pretty passionate about your watches. After all, they say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. But I’m not here to solve anyone’s problems — I’m here to help you hide them. To the uninitiated, spending what seems like abhorrent amounts of money on watches might seem ridiculous. To make matters worse, it can send the wrong idea. After all, fine mechanical watches are expensive, so lots of expensive…
Editor’s note: Add a splash of maritime to the wrist with fine naval details dispersed from its bow to its stern. Recently we covered the latest super-yacht-friendly release from the master of complications, the Franck Muller Vanguard S6 Yachting. So what better time to revisit the seagoing origins of the Yachting collection? And take a look back to where it all began, with this blue-dialled version that’s equally as nautical and just as vanguard. The last time we had Franck Muller in the office it was a bold Vanguard clad in sinister black and red – a watch that was at once sporty and menacing. Today we’re looking at another take on their trademark curved shape, and while the case and dial layout are similar to the Vanguard, the overall look and feel couldn’t be more different. The name gives the game away a little, but the Yachting watch offers a fresh nautical feel on the wrist. The marine allusions start with the dial, a shimmering navy blue that pairs well with the bright white Arabic hour markers. On top of that, the centre of the dial displays a compass rose, a navigational motif that is picked up in the outer section of the dial (complete…
Gender-fluid. If you were born yesterday or became acquainted with pop culture only last year, you could be forgiven for thinking – based on the excitable talk among style-and-social commentators – that it’s a newly minted concept. Not so. The 1970s: boys wearing their hair longer than girls; 1966: Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking … and so on, back through time. And watches: Cartier’s Tank, Rolex’s Datejust and Day-Date – those designs were always androgynous. And so to a watch that easily makes my Top 10 for the year: Chanel’s Boy.Friend Squelette or Skeleton if you prefer. Intentionally gender-neutral, it’s pitched as a women’s watch but it’s a world away from girly. And it’s equally far from butch: its Y chromosome is expressed as a very Parisian and urbane type of masculine elegance. The lines of the octagonal case – more accurately, a rectangle with its corners clipped off – is derived from Chanel’s first watch, the Premiere, but in Boy.Friend mode (which first appeared in 2015) the lines look tauter and sleeker. That’s largely thanks to its stepped bezel and svelte dimensions – the Squelette comes in at a shade under eight-and-a-half millimetres thick. Held inside that frame is a…