Gondolo 5124 White Gold / Blue

In Context

At 33.4 mm it is small by current standards, in the range most wristwatches occupied before cases began growing through the 1990s. The 7.38 mm case is genuinely slim and goes under a shirt cuff without argument. The case back is open, so the movement is visible without taking the watch apart, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. Rated to 30 m, it is protected against rain and splashes and nothing beyond that.

The movement is hand-wound, so winding it becomes part of the day rather than something the watch does for you. 44 hours of reserve carries it overnight, but not through a weekend in a drawer. At 28,800 vph the seconds hand advances 8 times a second.

5124G-011 is one of 2 executions of the 5124G base reference. Underneath they are the same watch; what separates this one is a blue sunburst dial and a white gold case. Introduced in 2015.

A rectangular hand-wound movement with small seconds, shaped so that plate and bridges fill a non-round case rather than leaving a round calibre rattling inside one. Patek introduced it in 2007 with the Gondolo reference 5098 — the company's first new shaped movement since the 9-90 of 1934. A Gyromax balance and Breguet overcoil regulate it.

2 other watches in the library run the Patek Philippe 25-21 REC PS.

Patek Philippe

Gondolo 5124 Breguet

5124G-001 · 33.4 mm

Patek Philippe

Gondolo 5124 Yellow Gold / Silver

5124J-001 · 33.4 mm