Patek Philippe 5231J
Upon its launch in 2019, the ref. 5231 made quite a bit of noise in the relatively small world of Patek Philippe collectors. Why is the map the same as the 5131 ? Will all metals be made ? Will the maps all remain unchanged ? Why ?!
As we’re still waiting for all of these questions to be answered, we wanted to take a closer look at this rare handcraft complicated Patek and break down what we love, and love a little less.
As far back as 3000BC, remnants of cloisonné enamel jewellery have been found in the regions of the Far East, used to hold pieces of stone or gems in rings or other decorative jewels. Cloisonné enamel was used by many great civilisations from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Byzantine, and spreading to China later on.
The process consists in using a thin wire, in order to contain the enamel before cooking it so as to fix it in place. Patek generally use a thin gold wire less than 0,5mm in diameter in order to form the contour of the desired design, before applying the enamel with a brush, mixing the enamel preparation so as to create the desired colour. The wire is fixed onto a dial where both sides have been enamelled beforehand - this is necessary as when firing the dial, it could contract and distort the dial as the enamel hardens - enamel is thus applied on both sides so as to keep the dial as flat as possible.
Multiple firings are often needed so as to fine tune the colour, depth and transparency of the enamel and transparent coats are also applied to fix the colours in place and protect them. This process allows enamel dials to remain as vibrant and colourful for centuries to come (unless the dial cracks).
Once the firing process is complete, the dial is quality checked and hand polished in order to give the enamel the right shine. The firing process is very onerous, requiring constant verification and multiple firings, supposedly only 1 in 8 dials make it into a watch. From the photos, we can see the gold ring around the enamel and the wiring isn’t as perfectly polished as one could expect - I believe the finishing here is quite difficult due to the differences in hardness of the gold and enamel, the gold being far softer. The variety in enamel is what makes these pieces so attractive, each unique and made from the hands of expert enamelers at Patek.
The 5231 is powered by the caliber 240HU (HU standing for Heure Universelle in French meaning universal time) a micro rotor powered automatic movement, adorned with the Patek Philippe Seal - the brand’s replacement to the Geneva seal since its introduction in April 2009 with, according the brand, the “most exclusive and stringent” quality standards in the world.
Personally, I’m a sucker for micro-rotors, they combine the practicality of an automatic watch, whilst still allowing for a non polluted view of the movement. Equipped with a sapphire caseback, the movement is on display for the owner to observe its beautiful Côte de Geneve bridges and perled baseplate. The 22ct gold micro-rotor contrasts beautifully with the rest of the movement, its cote de Geneve stripes and turned edges bringing harmony to the movement despite the dual tonality.
The case of the 5231 is a masterpiece. With ingredients from some of the greatest timepieces to have been made by the brand, most notably the legendary ref. 2523 for its lugs and the smooth bezel of the ref. 3448 or for the nerdiest of you out there the ref. 2577 - and its 38,5mm case, the watch wears beautifully on most wrists. The watch is also quite thin at 10,3mm (in comparison a Daytona is 12,5mm) allowing for it to slide under your hoodie perfectly.
The first time I handled a Patek Philippe Worldtime I was a little disappointed with the feel of the pusher for changing time zones - it felt very heavy and a little fragile - but when you think about the weight the mechanism has to carry from a simple push, notably the hour hand, and the world time disc - it actually feels surprisingly smooth and I’ve never heard of the mechanism seizing.
The yellow gold case is something I love, as aforementioned, it reminds me of the 3448, and compliments the enamel map superbly. It has a very vintage look and warmth to it that can’t be matched with a white metal in my opinion. When looking at the predecessing 5131 line, the yellow gold was my least favourite. But having played around with the renders of different metals for the 5231, if the maps remained unchanged the yellow will most definitely remain my favourite.
So will this watch be your daily companion as your travel through India in the back of an old bus ? Probably not, because it’s precious AND India has a half hour timezone unaccounted for in the watch (+ daylight savings and 15 mins timezones in Australia, etc.), but that’s beside the point. The 5231 is in my opinion a watch best kept for special occasions - when you’re not in a rush and have the time to gaze an extra few seconds at the poetic world map. Of course, this watch would be an absolute pleasure to wear whilst travelling, changing the time at the touch of a button - but for some reason, I’d rather use a 5131 for this, its case has a heftier less delicate feel to it - maybe due to the rounder edges.