Finally, last Monday, I saw the new Patek Philippe watches launched at Watches & Wonders live and on my wrist. I was not among the first to experience this excitement. So, of comments I had already read and heard. Almost all of them, however, focused on the new Nautilus 5711 steel with green dial, 'Which in person is something else entirely'. Some even ventured to say that 'It's another watch compared to the blue'.
Opinions from which I must deduce that I am a little colour-blind or, at least, not as observant as I thought. Because, although I was convinced that I had observed it well, under different lights, the dial - slightly different from the photos circulated by the company - appeared to me to be simply green. Beautiful is the date window finished with a silver frame (even more I would have liked to see the date disc finally matched, instead of white), but otherwise it is the same watch, now with a pleasant green dial.
The Perpetual Calendar in Line is another matter. The dial of which has a delicate gradient from outer black to a central blue of a completely different hue (this one) from what appears in the photo. A watch that had won me over in terms of technique, it also struck me with the eye.
Finally, among the new references is a model that is unexpectedly a revelation: the new Calatrava Clous de Paris in white gold. The decorated bezel version of the Patek Philippe dress watch is normally considered formal, yes, but less elegant than the classic version with a smooth bezel and, by some, even a little 'agée'. The new reference in white gold, with a vertically satin-finished anthracite dial, shuffles the cards. It remains undeniably a formal watch, but not at all 'old', to put it in the Italian way for once. The guilloché on the bezel reflects light in a thousand directions without overdoing it, around a non-trivial mat dial, which gains even more personality from the play of reflections. A (re)discovery.
Dody Giussani
