Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G is Back with an Ivory Lacquered Dial
Out with the blue and in with the new ivory lacquered dial for Patek’s eminently practical travel watch.
Vintage pilot watches have soared in popularity with remakes of legitimate aviator watches by historical brands and look-alikes by countless others. However, when Patek Philippe introduced its Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Ref. 5524 during Baselworld 2015, it caught everybody off guard. Presented in white gold with a blue dial and pushers on the left, the Travel Time, as its name indicates, is fitted with a practical tool for pilots in the form of a sophisticated dual time complication. Discontinued earlier this year, Patek returns with another white gold version with identical specs but flaunting a new ivory lacquered dial, under the reference 5524G-010.
The turbulence surrounding the release of Ref. 5524 in 2015 was partly because not many people were aware of Patek’s chapter in pilot watches. While the brand attributes some of the design features of the 5524 to its 1936 hour angle or siderometer watches, these historical models never led to a pilot’s watch collection per se. However, once the dust settled, the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time was embraced as a model that combines the best of two worlds, leading to the creation of a collection with a 37.5mm ladies’ version, the complex Alarm Travel Time model, the Chronograph and the original revisited in an attractive rose gold case – 5524R – with a brown gradient dial (still in catalogue).
The new white gold Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G shares identical specifications to earlier models but features an elegant ivory lacquered dial. Legibility and luminescence, vital features of early pilot watches, are recreated here with the large, applied Arabic numerals made from blackened white gold and filled with luminescent coating. The dark border of the numerals and the yellow luminescence stand out even in the daylight. Slightly lighter in colour, the solid charcoal-grey white gold hour and minute hands for local time are treated with the same yellow luminescent material.
The second skeletonised hour hand, also made in white gold and treated with a charcoal-grey coating, indicates home time. When the dual time zone feature is not in use, the skeletonised hour hand disappears underneath the solid hand. The dial’s two round day/night apertures are labelled Local and Home and indicate day with white and night with blue displays. Other features include the peripheral black railway minutes track, the central seconds hand with a round luminous tip and the date sub-dial at 6 o’clock, indexed to local time.
The 42mm polished white gold case has a relatively slim height of 10.78mm and features two screwed pushers on the left case flank to adjust the local time. The bottom pusher advances the solid hour hand forward in one-house increments while the top pusher does the opposite. To avoid accidental adjustments, the pushers have a patented safety lock. The date is set via a pusher in the case at 6:30.
Powered by the brand’s calibre 26-330 S C FUS, this automatic movement beats at 28,800vph, has a power reserve of 35-45 hours, a 21k gold rotor, a Gyromax free-sprung balance wheel and a Spiromax (silicon) balance spring. The high level of manual finishes and precision, with a tolerance of -3/+2 seconds per day, is corroborated by the Patek Philippe Seal.
A casual khaki composite strap with a fabric pattern and contrasting black stitching comes with the watch. It is fitted with a white gold clevis buckle, a nod to the harnesses used by aviators to attach their emergency kit. The Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G retails for EUR 58,900. More information at patek.com.
