Patek PhilippeComplications

Complications is Patek Philippe's tier between the Calatrava and the Grand Complications. It holds the annual calendars, chronographs, world timers, travel-time and moon-phase watches. This library holds 176 references, and 71 of them carry an annual calendar.

About the Patek Philippe Complications

The annual calendar is Patek's own invention, patented in 1996 with the ref 5035: a calendar that knows the length of every month except February, so it needs correcting once a year. The world time descends from Louis Cottier's 1937 mechanism and returned in 2000 with the ref 5110. The chronographs run from the 5070 of 1998, on a Lemania base, to the 5170 of 2010 with the first in-house hand-wound chronograph, and the 5960 of 2006 combined the annual calendar with Patek's first in-house automatic chronograph.

The caliber 240 HU, the micro-rotor movement with the world-time module, is the most common here at 40 references across the 5110, 5130, 5230 and the ladies' 7130; the 240 piece covers the base. The annual calendar family follows: the 324 S QA LU of the 5396 in 12 references, the 324 S QA LU 24H/303 of the 5205 in 13, and the 324 S IRM QA LU of the 5146 in 14. The CH 28-520 IRM QA 24H of the 5960 accounts for 17, the CH 29-535 PS of the 5170 and 5172 for 14, and the CH 27-70 of the 5070 for 9; the Lemania piece explains that last one. 140 of the 176 are automatic.

White gold is the most common material at 71 references, rose gold at 48 and platinum at 26; 8 are steel, led by the 5960/01A. Sizes run from 31.4 mm to 42.2 mm, with 42 mm, 38.5 mm and 40.5 mm the most common. 44 references are limited editions, and 150 have a display back. The glossary separates the annual calendar from the perpetual calendar that belongs to the tier above.

Grand Complications holds the perpetual calendars and repeaters, the Calatrava the time-only watches, and the Nautilus and Aquanaut carry several of these movements in sports cases.

All models in this collection176