Patek Philippe Retrograde Perpetual Calendar

A perpetual calendar is like a small computer on your wrist.

Think of it this way: Imagine a watch that keeps track of not only the time, but also the date, the day of the week, and the month, tells you whether it’s a leap year or not, and what the current phase of the moon is. Oh, and one more thing — imagine it does all of this mechanically, using springs a nd gears, and that you only have to adjust it once every century or so. Crazy, right?

Patek has been making such watches since the Second World War, and continues to make some of the most superlative quantieme perpetuelles on the market. This particular example, a Reference 5496P, dating to the 2010s, and includes a neat retrograde date display that makes it stand out from the crowd.

Housed in a 40mm 18K platinum case with a signed crown, a sapphire crystal, and a polished bezel , it features a champagne dial with applied indices, a matching ‘dauphine’ handset, a printed, retrograde date display, a moonphase display above 6 o’clock, and day, date, and month apertures.

Powered by the automati c Patek Philippe Calibre 324 S QR movement — which is visible via a sapphire display caseback — it comes paired to a signed, brown a lligator leather strap with a signed, platinum deployant clasp.

With its lovely design , interesting dial configuration, and excellent workmanship, this Patek Philippe ‘QP’ is simply a tremendous timepiece — the type th at any watch collector would be proud to feature in their collection!