By Dhananjay Pathak
Patek Philippe is best known for making some of the most exquisitely crafted and desirable wrist watches for men. That said, the brand also has a feminine side to it and we have some interesting news for you in this regard. Characterized by its square shape and an articulated bracelet, the Twenty-4 collection has been at the core of Patek Philippe’s women’s watch collection since 1999. But things are about change, as Patek is now updating this collection with interesting new models. Featuring a round case accompanied by Arabic numerals on the dial, these new watches are a refreshing departure from the original Twenty-4 watches. But, apart from looks, one of the important updates and the icing on the cake has to be the inclusion of Patek’s 324SC automatic movement.
Another noteworthy update to the new Twenty-4 watches has to be the case shape. The first wave of watches from the Twenty-4 collection were presented in an elegant art deco inspired rectangular case which was studded with diamonds on the left and right side of the case. This time around Patek has opted for a more traditional rounded case which in my opinion looks more refined as compared to the previous case shape. The luxury quotient has been kept intact by covering the entire bezel and even bracelet (Reference 7300/1201R-001) with layers of diamonds. The case has a modest diameter of 36mm, is 10.05mm tall and is water resistant to 30 meters, which is perfectly suitable for an elegant watch like this.
The dial on this new collection has also been thoroughly revised in accordance with the case shape. We now have bold applied Arabic numerals to indicate the hours instead of the Roman numerals/diamonds which were being used in the earlier variants. The handset now features three hands instead of two. The hour and minute hands have a baton style shape whereas the second’s hand is a tapering needle. The hour markers and the handset have also been deeply filled with lume to ensure that it is easy to read the time during both day and night. There is even a nicely bordered date window at 6 with black printing on a white date wheel.
Till now, watches from Patek’s Twenty-4 collection have been powered by the brand’s in-house quartz E15 caliber which consists of 6 jewels and provides a battery life of around 3 years. While not a bad deal, it definitely sounds strange especially for a brand like Patek that has a plethora of mechanical movements that power a majority of their watch collection. So, it is really nice to see Patek equip this new collection with their automatic in-house caliber 324SC. This movement features a date function along with sweep seconds and offers a maximum power reserve of around 45 hours. It operates at a frequency of 4Hz, has a rotor made out of 21k gold and has been beautifully finished using Perlage and Geneva stripes. The movement also gets the Patek Philippe seal implying that it has been made to some of highest quality and accuracy standards in the watchmaking industry. For instance, this movement would be accurate to -3/+2 seconds a day which is better than the -4/+6seconds being offered by its COSC certified competitors.
The new Twenty-4 watches from Patek Philippe are charming little dress watches that add some nice variety to the existing Twenty-4 collection. There are three different variants to choose from; Ref. 7300/1200A-001/010 – Stainless Steel (Blue/black sunburst dial) priced at $26,083, Ref.7300/1200R-001/010) – Rose gold with diamond set bezel (White/brown sunburst dial) priced at $45,361 and Ref.7300/1201R-001 – Rose gold with diamond-set bezel and case priced at $56,702. Visit Patek Philippe here.
