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– By Logan Baker
Few watches are more desirable than a perpetual calendar from Patek Philippe.
Whether it's vintage or modern, a wristwatch or a pocket watch, if it comes with a chronograph accompaniment or without it – it doesn't matter. Patek Philippe perpetual calendars enjoy a lofty position at the peak of the watch collecting hobby.
And Patek Philippe has been more than happy to provide plenty of options for collectors to choose from. Which is one of the reasons why the introduction of the ref. 5320 came as such a surprise during Baselworld 2017.
Patek Philippe already offered multiple perpetual calendar wristwatches in their catalog at the time. There were at least seven existing references by my count: the ref. 5139, 5140, 5940, 5159, 5160, 5327, and 5496. Maybe Patek was feeling generous? It's impossible to say what the impetus was for the launch of the ref. 5320G-001 that year.
The ref. 5320 was an entirely new perpetual calendar design that borrowed heavily from vintage Patek Philippe calendars of the past, a fact that made it unique among all of Patek's existing perpetual calendars at the time.
Since Thierry Stern assumed the top position at his family's firm in 2009, Patek Philippe has mostly adopted a forward-thinking approach to design. Even the classic QP configuration with sub-dials at three, six, and nine o'clock – as seen on the ref. 5139, 5140, and 5327 – had a contemporary look and feel that couldn’t be ignored by vintage purists.
The ref. 5320G was a modern Patek Philippe watch created with a clear eye toward the brand's beloved archives.
It all starts with the twin in-line apertures displaying the day and the month that are situated above the center of the dial. Then there's the use of Super-LumiNova-filled syringe hands, and finally, the decision to place a lovely bosom-style moon-phase – with date ring – at the six o'clock position. It would only be more authentic if Patek opted to sneak a man-on-the-moon caricature in there.
The dial is coated in a layer of warm ivory lacquer that leaves a glossy gleam, with 18k white gold Arabic hour markers (filled with lume) applied to the dial's periphery alongside luminescent dot five-minute markers. A pair of circular apertures on opposite sides of the moon-phase indicate day/night (left) and leap year (right). Everything on the dial is then protected by a box-style sapphire crystal to perfectly evoke the vintage vibes.
The polished 18k white gold case measures just 40mm × 11.13mm, with a stepped bezel, and arguably the best-looking lugs produced by any major watch brand today. Seriously – name a current-production watch from any of Patek’s key competitors (A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, etc) that has lugs more interesting than the ref. 5320’s three-tiered faceted, downturned design. You can’t do it.
Inside the ref. 5320 is the in-house, self-winding caliber 324 S Q equipped with a 21k solid-gold full rotor, in addition to Patek's proprietary Gyromax balance and Spiromax balance spring (made of Silinvar). The movement utilizes the brand's time-only caliber 324 with the addition of a perpetual calendar module; a similar approach is also used by Patek on the retrograde perpetual calendar ref. 5496, as well as on many of the brand's annual calendar models. The perpetual calendar module is positioned on the dial-facing side of the movement, meaning it can't be seen through the exhibition caseback. You can set the calendar functions through the recessed pushers on the caseband. However, you shouldn't need it for the moon-phase – at least not until the 2100s. (The moon-phase complication requires only a single-day correction once every 122 years.)
The caliber 324 S Q runs in 4 Hz, offers up a maximum power reserve of 45 hours, and comprises 367 individual components, finished to meet the standard of the brand's internal Patek Philippe seal, with Côtes de Genève on the bridges, perlage on the mainplate, and visible anglage throughout. The movement's accuracy is specced between -3 and +2 seconds daily.
Back to the vintage-inspired design – the ref. 5320 borrows many elements of its appearance from a number of the most famous vintage Patek Philippe references ever. The twin-line aperture for day/month is most often associated with the ref. 2497 and ref. 2438, though it dates even further back to the original ref. 1526. Those lume-filled syringe hands? They're said to have been adopted from a one-of-a-kind 1944 ref. 1591, a watch that was originally owned by a Maharajah and that eventually sold for a seven-figure sum at a 2007 auction. It can now be found on display inside the official Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
The case profile, meanwhile, most clearly references the Calatrava ref. 2405 from the 1940s, which featured a similar style of triple-stepped "claw" lugs, while its rounded case flanks are most reminescent of the legendary ref. 3448 (not to mention its rarely seen sibling, the ref. 3449).
When it was released in 2017, the ref. 5320G-001 had an MSRP of USD $82,800, a price that positioned it near the entry point for Patek Philippe's current collection of perpetual calendar wristwatches. Patek then discontinued the original cream-ivory dial version in 2022, replacing it with a rose-opaline "salmon" dial example (ref. 5320G-011), which currently carries a list price of approximately USD $94,624.
A quick look across the international auction landscape for the ref. 5320G-001 reveals that eight total ivory/cream-dial examples have publicly sold at auction since the watch’s 2017 release (including three previous appearances at Phillips – here, here, and here), with the average price point, as of Jan. 2024, landing at approximately USD $73,873.
However, none of those eight examples featured the much-coveted Tiffany & Co. signature on their dials. Available for immediate purchase through Phillips PERPETUAL, the Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar ref. 5320G-001 with Tiffany & Co. dial signature that's pictured in this article dates to 2021 and is in "new-old-stock" condition, complete with its Tiffany & Co. paperwork, its original – and iconic – presentation box in robin-egg blue, and all its accessories, including an additional solid caseback in 18k white gold. Price: £125,000
You can learn more about the Tiffany-signed Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar ref. 5320G-0001 here.
Phillips PERPETUAL offers a boutique experience to clients for both the sale and purchase of fine and rare watches, in London’s Berkeley Square and the Gstaad Palace, in Switzerland.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade reporting on every aspect of the watch business. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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