Patek Philippe has Arrived!

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“You never really own a Patek Philippe, you merely take care of it for the next generation,” or so we are meant to believe.  Rubbish!  Buy one for yourself and if you are lucky enough to have a son who understands and appreciates it, you can then not concern yourself to its whereabouts beyond your earthly presence.

In 1991, I was in Zurich on holiday; I happened to glance in a shop window and fell in love with a watch in the window, a Patek Philippe.  It was simple, thin, gold, and rare.  It put my Rolex Submariner to shame, made it look clunky and somewhat flashy.  I vowed to own one some day.

Fast forward: it’s 2009, and I’m actually focused on a real search.  My favourite dealer in Melbourne finds a Calatrava 3998 at a price I can actually think about; in other words if I trade in my entire collection I can swing it.

The Calatrava has a simple movement and no complications,  it only tells time with a date function.  A complication would be a chronograph or an astronomical function such as moon phases.  The more complications, the more intricate and certainly the more expensive, running $200k and more based on the manufacturer, the age, and of course the rarity. Well beyond my wildest imagination!

So back to reality. The Calatrava 3998 is an automatic, or self winding watch, that contains 29 jewels, 229 parts, and a 21 carat gold central rotor to manage telling me time on a daily basis.  It tells me the time and the date, and that is all.

For that I traded in 3 almost new watches, (Stainless and Gold Omega Constellation with a self winding movement, Stainless and Gold Omega Double Eagle Constellation with a Co-Axial movement, and a Rolex Milgaus in Stainless Steel) all with boxes, registration, receipts aka provenance.  The Calatrava is about 12 years old and is one of 300 created that year

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So now I strap on my dream every work day and wear it proudly and continually think about two things:

Will my daughter appreciate it someday?

Einstein completely debunked my notions of keeping time so do I really need anything to tell me what time it is?

My $400 Blackberry tells me the time, wakes me up, and tells me where to go at any given particular time of the day, why do I need a $10,000 used watch?

Why is there a market for these items really, it certainly isn’t just to tell time.  They are works of art, they are rare, and as a man it’s really the only jewelry I can bear to wear.

Funny, that reminds me of a Vertu phone I used to own…

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7 Comments on "Patek Philippe has Arrived!"

  1. Larry Greenberg | May 4, 2009 at 4:35 pm |

    Drool.

  2. So you are saying that my Rolex is Datejust (18K & stainless) is clunky and flashy? Pffft! 😉

  3. Drew Guttadore | May 4, 2009 at 5:47 pm |

    @ Judie,to each their own.. I must say though that I do like the ladies Rolex Datejust. 🙂

  4. Well good! Because I like your Patek. 😉

    I am sure that your daughter will treasure it one day, too.

  5. BUT, will it ‘take a lickin and keep on tickin?’ 🙂

  6. Drew,

    It’s great to see that some people love great craftsmanship! I totally cherish my Patek Philippe Pocket Watch that was my Great Grandfather’s even more than my Longines, which is not a bad timepiece either that I picked up and used to wear before my SPOT watch. 🙂

    Your daughter will treasure it too and it looks like you started a tradition.

    The scheduled 3-5 yr maintenance can be quite expensive depending the intricacy of the watch. One watch shop quoted me a service cost as much as I payed for my Longines.:(

    Watch collecting is still one of the best investments one can make and the value of the watch will always go up unlike the stock market or real estate.

    Enjoy it!

  7. Drew Guttadore | May 5, 2009 at 7:05 pm |

    @Lex You are absolutely right, so I keep an Omega Quartz Seamaster Aqua Terra for the weekends and traveling.. My biggest fear is to fall into the water or something like that with the PP on! Had the same worry when I was carrying a Vertu phone!
    @ FYIGuy Fantastic aren’t they! I do wish mine had been handed down and I’m hoping that my daughter will think the same some day.. Agreed on the maintenance on a simple movement watch, it is horrific and as noted could buy another very nice watch for the same price.. 🙁

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