Launched as a limited edition during Patek Philippe's major "Watch Art" exhibition in Tokyo in June 2023, Ref. 5330 now enters the Manufacture's permanent collection. This new Universal Time model is distinguished by a patented global innovation: for the first time, the date is synchronized with local time, that is, with the time zone set at 12 o'clock on the cities disc and shown by the central hands.
The newly developed self-winding Caliber 240 HU C features a state-of-the-art differential system and displays the date around the perimeter of the dial via a central clear glass hand ending in a red tip. The refined white gold case is paired with a blue-gray opaline dial, enhanced by a central "carbon" effect design. This latest technological innovation in Patek Philippe's Ora Universale watches expands the range of travel watches offered by the Manufacture.
Patek Philippe's famous Universal Time function, created on the basis of an invention by Geneva master watchmaker Louis Cottier and introduced in the 1930s at the time of the first transatlantic flights, has never ceased to be optimized on a technical level. Since the early 1950s, Universal Time has made it possible to simultaneously and permanently read the time in the 24 time zones by means of two mobile discs (city disc and 24-hour disc), while benefiting from a display of local time by means of the central hour/minute hands (time zone selected at 12 o'clock). Thanks to this ingenious system and the center of the dials often embellished with Grand Feu cloisonné enamel papers or hand-guilloché decoration, watches equipped with this complication have established themselves as the most recognizable and most sought-after Patek Philippe models among enthusiasts of quality mechanics.
Fertile ground for innovation
In 1999, Patek Philippe greatly improved the functionality of Universal Time with a patented and exclusive mechanism that allows, when changing time zones, the set of displays (city disc, 24-hour disc, central hour hand) to be changed in one-hour increments with a single push of the button, without compromising the accuracy of the minutes and seconds. An innovation introduced in 2000 with the launch of Ref. 5110. Since then, the Manufacture's engineers have associated Universal Time with two other of the most emblematic complications. In 2016, the Universal Hour Chronograph Ref. 5930 with automatic caliber CH 28-520 HU was unveiled. In 2017, on the occasion of the Great Exhibition in New York, Patek Philippe presented the first Universal Hour minute repeater that always chimes local time, Ref. 5531 with automatic caliber R 27 HU, in a limited series of ten pieces. This model entered the current collection in 2018.
A new combination of useful functions in everyday life Patek Philippe has reached a new and important milestone in the history of Universal Time, equipping it for the first time with a date display. This habitually rather simple function represents, in this case, a genuine technical challenge. In other Universal Time watches equipped with a date display, when the traveler changes time zones, he always has to adjust it independently of the calendar.
In an effort to make the user experience as convenient and practical as possible, Patek Philippe asked its engineers to mechanically match the date display to the local time (time zone selected at 12 o'clock and indicated by the central hands), without any need for adjustment.
To meet this challenge, it was necessary for the date to adjust automatically in the two cases that cause it to change: when midnight is passed, and the date changes to the next day, and when the date change line is crossed from west to east (in the middle of the Pacific) and the date goes back one day. It was the latter case that Phileas Fogg forgot in Julius Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, when he thought he had lost the bet by one day (a mistake he would not have made had he worn the new Ref. 5330G-001 on his wrist). As with the Universal Hour Minute Repeater watch Ref 5531, the difficulty lay not only in the need to make the two complications "coexist" within the same movement.
These also had to interact, and Universal Time had to "drive" the date display (just as it "drives" the minute repeater in Ref. 5531). The date mechanism had to be able to function in both directions, forward and backward, when changing the date, perfectly reliably and without any risk of damaging the movement.
An innovative and patented differential In order to offer this useful, exclusive and user-friendly function, the Manufacture has developed a new movement, Caliber 240 HU C based on the ultra-flat self-winding Caliber 240 HU included since 2000 in Patek Philippe Universal Hour watches without additional functions. The first special feature of this innovative movement lies in the date display module, which alone is the sum of seventy components. Local time date management is provided by a patented central differential system involving two concentric "star" engagement wheels.
When the outer star (with a larger diameter and equipped with sixty-two teeth) rotates clockwise, the date hand advances one click clockwise. When the inner star (equipped with thirty-one teeth) rotates clockwise, the date hand moves back one click counterclockwise. When both stars rotate clockwise together (which should result in simultaneous forward and backward movement of the date hand), the differential allows this hand to remain stationary. In this way, each press of the button at 10 o'clock allows not only the city disc, 24-hour disc, and central hour hand to be adjusted in one-hour increments, but also, when necessary, the date in both directions.
Despite its complexity, this system is user-friendly, demonstrating Patek Philippe's entirely customer-oriented philosophy of creation. In addition, the new caliber 240 HU C, despite containing an additional mechanism, is only 0.7 millimeters thicker than the caliber 240 HU (4.58 mm vs. 3.88 mm), and this has made it possible to maintain the elegant fineness of the case.
An original and readable visualization
The second special feature of the new Universal Hour Ref. 5330G-001 is the way the date is displayed. Patek Philippe chose a display by means of a central hand equipped with a red lacquered vane pointing at the scale from 1 to 31 decaled on the edge of the dial, on a silvered beveled réhaut that creates an eye-catching effect of depth. To prevent this relatively static hand from interfering with the legibility of other information, the Manufacture's engineers designed a transparent glass hand, a "first" for Patek Philippe.
An original and readable visualization
The second special feature of the new Universal Hour Ref. 5330G-001 is the way the date is displayed. Patek Philippe chose a display by means of a central hand equipped with a red lacquered vane pointing at the scale from 1 to 31 decaled on the edge of the dial, on a silvered beveled réhaut that creates an eye-catching effect of depth. To prevent this relatively static hand from interfering with the legibility of other information, the Manufacture's engineers designed a transparent glass hand, a "first" for Patek Philippe.
An aesthetic of great character
Like all Patek Philippe Universal Hour watches, the new Ref. 5330G-001 is distinguished by its refined and extremely distinctive aesthetics. The center of the dial with its elegant blue-gray opaline color is embellished with a "carbon" motif that gives the whole a modern and dynamic touch. The 24-hour disc is divided into two day/night zones identified, respectively, by a silver background with a small golden sun symbolizing noon and a blue-gray background with a golden crescent moon symbolizing midnight.
On the cities disc, a red dot between Auckland and Midway marks the date change line. Local time in the selected time zone at 12 o'clock is indicated by faceted dauphine hands and faceted white gold applique baton hour markers with white luminescent coating. The fully polished white gold case, 40 mm in diameter, is distinguished by curved double godron strap lugs. Through the sapphire crystal case back, one can admire the architecture and careful finishing of the new self-winding Caliber 240 HU C. The color of the dial is echoed by the blue-grey calfskin strap with "denim" pattern and white hand-stitching, fitted with a white gold pin buckle.
