Patek Philippe World Time Flyback Chronograph

Overall Condition: Excellent condition throughout.

There’s an infinite amount of romance being able to tell the time anywhere in 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 o’clock 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, manufactures such as Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe produced “world time” pocket watches using a special dial layout that showed 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 5935A-001 is a modern reimagining of just such a watch. Rendered here in stainless steel — a relative rarity for the maison's complicated watches — it features a 41mm case with a signed crown, three 'paddle' pushers, 'Cornes de Vache'-style lugs, a stepped bezel, and a sapphire crystal. Its dial is nothing short of stunning: Executed in a rose-gilt opaline color, it features an outer city track; an inner 1/5th-seconds track; an inner, a rotating 24-hour track in silver and black; a small subsidiary 30-minute totalizer above 6 o'clock; applied white gold baton-style hour markers with white luminescent coating; and faceted white gold dauphine-style hands with white luminescent coating.

Powered by the Patek Philippe Calibre CH 28-520 HU automatic movement, this spectacular piece not only keeps track of the world's varied time zones, but also provides flyback chronograph functionality via the dual paddle pushers on the right-hand case flank. With the ability to both track elapsed time and to quickly adjust the local time zone via the left-hand paddle pusher, it provides a highly ergonomic, easy-to-use interface for the frequent traveler. Furthermore, this example ships with its factory goodies dating to the 2020s.

Spend much of your year crossing the world's time zones? This Reference 5935A-001 is designed to make that task significantly more enjoyable!