Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 5196

Calatrava. Patek Philippe adopted the Calatrava Cross as its corporate emblem at the end of the 19th Century. In 1932 Patek Philippe launched a line of elegant round faced watches as its Calatrava line which has become the companies signature model. The Calatrava line of Patek Philippe consists of the companies round cased basic dress watches. Being the companies most consumer oriented line, there are a wide variety of Calatrava watches to suit different tastes. The Calatrava line includes the classic looking Ref. 5116 and 5119 models, the officers cased Ref. 5153 and the more contemporary Ref. 5296. Each of these are fine elegant watches. However, if you are looking for the current model which most closely resembles the original 1932 Calatrava, that would be the Ref. 5196, which traces its heritage from the first Calatrava ever released, the Ref. 96.

Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 5196. The Ref. 5196 Calatrava is a time only watch, displaying only hours, minutes and seconds. It is house in a 37mm wide round case made of precious metals. The Ref. 5196 is powered by the same manual winding movement found in the Ref. 5116 and 5119 models. The manually wound caliber 215 PS movement is one of the thinnest of Patek Philippe’s movements with a height of only 2.55mm. The 215 PS movement produces 28,800 semi-oscillations per hour and has a 44 hour power reserve. Unlike most of the newer Calatrava's, the Ref. 5192 does not have a clear case back to view the movement.



The watch comes in four variants. The first three comes in white gold (Ref. 5196G), yellow gold (Ref. 5196J), and rose gold (Ref. 5196R), cases with gold applied stick or baton markers. The fourth version comes in a platinum (Ref. 5196P), case with Arabic numerals on the dial.

A simple, elegant timeless dress watch which would make a nice addition to any collection.

About Patek Philippe. Patek Philippe & Co. was founded in Switzerland in 1851. The companies emblem, the Calatrava Cross, was adopted by it at the end of the 19th Century. It is acknowledged as one of the finest, if not the finest, watchmaker in the world.