Review: Patek Philippe Annual Calendar 5205G-013
A blue dial beauty with exquisite sculptured lugs and moon phase display
In “The Watch, Thoroughly Revised” by Gene Stone and Stephen Pulvirent, an interesting metaphor is used to describe the top watch brands in the setting of an old European royal count. Patek Philippe is the king, Vacheron Constantin is the queen, AP is the prince, JLC is the prime minister, Rolex is the knight, Breguet is the father of the king, and Lange is the young nobleman who may one day become king.
I cannot help but apply this to my humble collection which has been reviewed in this newsletter. In this small watch kingdom, the Patek Philippe 5205G-013 annual calendar with moon phase is the undisputed king. I fell in love with this blue dial beauty the first time I saw it in an AD. It looked stately, elegant, stunning, precious and simply perfect. I knew that I could not afford to buy too many Patek timepieces, so I must choose wisely in order to have no regrets for the next 10-20 years. As many watch lovers know, Patek was the first to produce many popular complications such as perpetual calendar, chronograph, world time and annual calendar. What more could I ask for if I might own one of such Patek inventions?
The annual calendar was invented by Patek in a not-so-distant 1996. It is like a perpetual calendar except that it doesn’t handle the February to March transition properly. Once a year, on March 1, the date needs to be manually advanced from Feb 29/30 to March 1. For a perpetual calendar worn throughout the year, there are still two occasions that manual adjustments are needed, the time changes at the start and end of the Daylight Saving Time. For an annual calendar, the number of mandatary adjustments in a year is three, 2 occasions for time change and 1 occasion for date change. For a regular watch with date display, the number of changes needed is seven in a year, 2 for time and 5 for date. The annual calendar offers a very useful complication as a compelling price relative to the perpetual calendar.
The first annual calendar 5035J in yellow gold was crowned the Swiss “Watch of the Year” in the year of its launch. The subsequent annual calendar models were often combined with other complications such as moon phase indicator (5036, 4936, 5396, 5726, 5205, 4947), power reserve indicator (5146, 5147), chronograph (5905, 5960, 5961), and regulator display (5235). The reference 5205 started in 2010 with 5205G-001 and 5205G-010 in grey with case in white gold. The blue dial 5205G-013 was released in 2018, which is the newest model in the lineup as of this writing.
After I made up my mind, the blue dial 5205G-013 was nowhere to be found. The wait time at some ADs I checked was 3-6 months. Patek’s annual production volume is around 60,000 but there are around 160 models in total. Therefore, for each model, especially the more desirable ones, the product volume is still quite low compared to the demands for them. Patience is a must for watch collectors, no matter if you collect vintage or modern models. Eventually, the call from an out-of-state AD came and my wait was over.
The most prominent feature of the dial is the three apertures along an arc for displaying the day, the date and the month. This design with 3 discs behind the dial has become a signature feature in many Patek high-end calendar watches. On the lower part of the dial is a subsidiary dial with 24-hour indication and moon phase display. The sunburst dial is blue in the center and morphs outwards to black gradually. The time is shown centrally via three hands with the second hand in white which is rarely seen in any watch design. The white second hand and the white sub dial hand go quite well with the white aperture discs, the white Patek logo and the white 24-hour markings, over the gorgeous, radiating blue background. The hour and minute hands have luminous coating for night time viewing. The dial design is in a perfect symmetry with optimal proportion for easy reading of all the information.
The moon phase display can be a useful function in addition to being fun to look at. For example, for folks living near the sea, the moon phase can be used to compute the time for high tide and low tide. When there is a new moon, the high tide occurs at midnight and noon time. A waxing crescent moon indicates that the high tide comes at 3am and 3pm. When the moon is the first quarter, the high tide takes place at 6am and 6pm. The low tide happens 6 hour prior to and after the high tide. There are tide watches such as the Sinn 240 St Gz, but one may figure out the rough tide schedule with a watch with moon phase display.
The 24-hour indicator is an uncommon complication which may seem unnecessary to some folks, as the wearer would normally know if it is the day or night . I have found one compelling use case for the 24-hour indicator. When setting a regular watch with a date function, there is no way to know if the watch “thinks” it is in the day time or night time. Setting it wrong, the date will change at noon time, rather than midnight. The only fool-proof way is to change the date to one day prior to the current date first, wind the hands to advance the date to current date, then continue to rotate the hands to the correct time. There is no such hassle when a 24-hour indicator is available. The time, together with day, date and moon phase may be set directly.
The case of the 5205G is in white gold, so the watch feels a bit heavy. The diameter of the case is 40mm while the height is 11.36mm. It is easily the ideal size for most people. The case construction is notable for the slightly concave bezel and the delicately pierced strap lugs. The sculptured lugs have been seen in other watches such as the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 collection. However, I would say the Patek design is the most elegant and exquisite. We almost could imagine Patek designers and engineers painstakingly refining the lugs into the flawless and iconic shape. It is the attention to details and pursuit of beauty and perfection that keep Patek in the king’s throne.
If you are mesmerized by the stunningly beautiful dial, try turning it over to see the movement behind the transparent sapphire caseback. The finishing is top notch, flawless and beautiful, as guaranteed by the Patek Philippe Seal. The central rotor is in 21K gold offering unidirectional winding for 45-hour of power reserve. The movement powering the 5205G-013 is the 356-part Calibre 324 QA LU 24H/206. We may learn more about the calibre by understanding the meanings of the product code.
324: referring to base movement 324 S C
QA: Annual calendar (Quantième annuel)
LU: Moon phase indicator (Phases de lune)
24H: 24-hour indicator
206: referring to version 206 of this movement used exclusively for the 5205 models. Another version 303 is used for other Patek annual calendar models like 5396 and 5726.
It is interesting that this movement contains more parts than a conventional perpetual calendar with moon phase, which may need 275 components as shown in calibre 240 Q. My guess is that this movement was implemented by an add-on module to the base movement, while the perpetual calendar calibre might be designed as an integrated mechanism. The timing accuracy was +1.4 seconds per day, as measured over 25 days by using the “WatchTracker" mobile app. Additionally, this timepiece features an extremely accurate moon phase display that deviates from the true lunar cycle by one day every 122 years. It is indeed an engineering wonder showcasing the state-of-the-art in high-end watchmaking.
A watch review is not complete without discussion on the wearability. However, I don’t have much to share as I have not worn it yet except for taking a few wrist shots. This timepiece is a precious art inside and out that I want to keep it in the pristine condition for many years to come. The ingenious annual calendar mechanism has emerged as one of Patek Philippe’s flagship models. The 5205G-013 is the king of my collection and it needs to be treated with upmost care and respect, haha.
Finally, is there anything I would like to change for this watch, if there were one wish to be granted? I often consulted with my father for advice and endorsement for major watch purchases. In our joint early research, my father thought the sub-dial might be a GMT function due to its 24 hour scale. A website had actually included GMT as a feature mistakenly. While knowing it was not the case, I secretly agree with my father that a GMT would be really nice, being a frequent traveler myself (before the pandemic anyway). Better yet, my wish would be for two hands in the sub-dial, one for 24 hour local time and one for the home time. An annual calendar combined with GMT would make this timepiece the eternal king.
Additional references:
Official product page and video
A review by Deployant
A review by Monochrome
A video review by Dylan of Bijou Diamond Jewellery
A 5205G-013 with Tiffany mark at the Phillips Racing Pulse Auction Dec 12, 2020
Timing measurements with a timegrapher: crown up +1, crown down 0, 12 up +1, 12 down +2, dial up +4 and dial down +3. Averaged error +1.8 secs per day.