Patek Philippe Ref. 5146 Annual Calendar

Value for money Patek Philippe. If you are in the market for a Patek Philippe dress watch, the Ref. 5146 annual calendar watch, in our opinion represents the best value for money option in the Patek line up. To many, the words value for money and Patek Philippe do not belong in the same sentence. But when you are buying luxury brands, value for money is a very relative concept.

Even after discounts a basic Patek Philippe Calatrava, like the yellow gold Ref. 5196J, will set you back about US$14K, even after discounts. For this you get a finely built time only watch with a manual winding movement. Adding another US$5-6K will get you a more contemporary Calatrava, like a Ref. 5127 or Ref. 5296 with a date display and a automatic movement. Adding another US$9-10K will get you something truly special, a Patek Philippe complication watch, an annual calendar. To move up from an annual calendar to a perpetual calendar like the Ref. 5140 of Ref. 5159, will require you at double you investment. 

Patek Philippe Ref. 5146G. Picture from European Watch Co.

and is used with their permission. No republication of the same

 should be made without permission from the source.

What is so special about an annual calendar watch? An annual calendar watch has a very intricate mechanism which recognizes the different number of days each month has, so that it will change from July to August on the 31st of the month, and from August to September 31st of the month and in September, it will display October 1, after the 30th of September. The only time you have to correct the date display is on March 1 of the year since the watch does not the month as having only 28 or 29 days. With a typical date watch, you have to correct the date five times a year.  Many would say it is not worth US$30K so a not to have to change the date five times a year. For your money, you are not buying the convenience, but you are buying the privilege of having something special on your wrist.

Even better would be a perpetual calendar, which recognizes leap years so that its mechanism recognizes with February ends on the 28th and which year it ends on the 29th. But the advantage of a perpetual calendar is theoretical even if the watch is worn daily. Even under Patek Philippe's stringent standards, you can expect the watch to gain or lose an average of at least two second per day, or about a minute per month. So depending on how obsessive you are about time accuracy, you will wind up setting the time at least once a month, and definitely at least once every five or six months. In this sense, when you correct the date once a year, you can simply correct the time simultaneously.       

Patek Philippe Ref. 5146P. Picture from European Watch Co.

and is used with their permission. No republication of the same

 should be made without permission from the source.

Contemporary Classic.  The Ref. 5146 is a very classic looking Patek Philippe, with a relatively large , for a Patek, 39 mm diameter case which is 11 mm tall. The Perpetual Calendar 5140 is a remarkable watch with a very complicated movement housed in a smallest 37 mm diameter case which is only about 7 mm tall. But I suspect that many would prefer the look of the larger Ref. 5146 on their wrists.

As a testament to its popularity, the Ref. 5146 comes in more variants than any other Patek Philippe watch. It comes with both a cream and slate grey dial in both yellow and white gold cases. A rose gold version and platinum version are also available. Those who buy the platinum version get a ebony sunburst dial and stick markers at the 3-9-12 o'clock positions which visually differentiate from the gold 

About Patek Philippe. Patek Philippe & Co. was founded in Switzerland in 1851. The company's 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.