Patek Philippe World Time Cloisonné

The Jet Age shrunk the world. The advent of transcontinental and transatlantic jet travel made it possible for a person to sip an espresso in the Bar Della Pace in the morning and still make an 8:00 reservation at Lutèce that same evening. Nearly a hundred years earlier, to meet the demands prompted by the establishment of railway time in the 1860s, watchmakers such as Hamilton and Elgin developed railroad pocket chronometers that included a third hand to indicate an additional timezone. This set the framework of what was to come. In the 1930s and 1940s, manufacturers such as Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe produced “world time” pocket watches, utilizing a special dial layout designed by Louis Cottier that displayed the time across the globe’s different time zones simultaneously. In the 1950s, the advent (and immediacy) of jet travel — and the frequency at which transatlantic and transcontinental flights occurred — made it necessary for travelers to have a wristwatch that could display multiple time zones at once. The Patek Philippe Reference 5131J-014 is a modern reimagining of just such a watch. Rendered here in yellow gold, it features a classical complication executed in stunning fidelity, given its large, 39.5mm case size. On the dial, an inner sector depicts the Americas, Asia, and Australia in breathtaking cloisonné enamel, surrounded by a bi-color, blue (night) and silver (day) 24-hour ring. Beyond this adjustable ring is a silvered city ring — a feature familiar to devotees of classic world time complications. Using this 24-city outer ring and the inner rotating 24-hour ring — all of which is controlled by the 10 o’clock pusher — the wearer can track the time around the world from their present location. Through the watch’s sapphire display back, it’s possible to view the incredible workmanship on the in-house Patek Philippe Calibre 240 HU automatic movement. Fitted with a brand-new, signed brown alligator leather strap featuring an 18K yellow gold deployant clasp, this stunning piece includes its inner and outer boxes, a leather folio, and a certificate of origin dated 2015. There’s a traveler’s watch, and then there’s the traveler’s watch — this is the latter.