Patek Philippe Aquanaut 'Travel Time'

The Aquanaut may be one of the most important modern luxury sport watches on the market.  The Reference 5060J, launched in 1996 for the 20th anniversary of the Nautilus, was a sort of transitional watch. Borrowing features from the Nautilus but doing away with the famed case “ears” of that porthole-inspired model and adding lugs, it provided the basis for the Reference 5060A in 1997, the first model actually bearing the Aquanaut name. The Aquanaut would go on to form the basis of a full collection of luxury sports watches that provided the entry point into the Patek Philippe catalog. This particular Aquanaut, a Reference 5164A is a “Travel Time” model, and makes use of Patek’s incredibly useful dual-button system to control an easy-to-use jumping hour system. Housed in a 41mm stainless steel case, it features a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, an luminous anthracite hobnail dial with a matching handset, a second time zone, a date indicator, and a local/home time indicator. Powered by the automatic Patek Philippe Caliber 324 S C FUS movement, it comes paired to a black rubber strap with a signed deployant clasp. It also includes its factory goodies, including a Certificate of Origin dated to November, 2012.  This is far and away one of the coolest implementations of the “travel time” complication, and proof of Patek’s horological chops. Try it on for size!