Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar, 2022

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

A perpetual calendar is like a small computer on your wrist. Think of it this way: Imagine a watch that keeps track of not only the time, but also the date, the day of the week, and the month, tells you whether it’s a leap year or not, and what the current phase of the moon is. Oh, and one more thing — imagine it does all of this mechanically , using springs and gears, and that you only have to adjust it once every century or so. Crazy, right? Patek has been making such watches since the Second World War, and continues to make some of the most superlative quantieme perpetuelles on the market. This particular example is a Reference 5320G, one of the best-looking QPs ever designed. Housed in a 40mm 18K white gold Art Deco-style case with a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, and a polished, stepped bezel, it features a striking salmon dial with applied luminous ‘Arabic’ indices, a matching ‘syringe’ handset, an outer 1/5th-second track, and a perpetual calendar display with day and month apertures, plus a date-and-moonphase register above 6:00. Two small apertures flanking this display indicate the leap year and day/night. Powering this beauty is the automatic Patek Philippe Calibre 324SQ with 29 jewels and a 45-hour power reserve, which is visible via a sapphire display caseback. Paired to a signed, brown alligator leather strap with an 18K white gold, signed deployant clasp, this 5320G is simply a dream of a watch — and the fact that it’s accompanied by its factory goodies with papers dating to 2022 only makes it that more appealing. If you’re on the hunt for a QP, we suggest you stop here. The likelihood of finding a finer, better designed model is pretty slim!