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Patek Philippe Calatrava with Microrotor movement


calatrava

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I just received a Patek Philippe Calatrava with a microrotor movement and Breguet hands. As befitting a watch with a microrotor movement, it is impressively thin at 8.2mm. It is clearly a fantasy watch, combining design elements, such as the shiny (enamel like) dial, fonts, and case shape of the Patek 5959, and Breguet hands which appear on the Patek 3939, and adding a date window at 6 o'clock. It comes with a generic crown, which looks a bit like the crown on the Patek 5959.

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Patek 5959

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Patek 3939

Anyhow, here are some photos of the watch which I received.

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It feels nicely made, and comes with a Patek Tang buckle with the correct engravings (on the inside, as per the gen). While it is definitely a fantasy model, it does seem like a watch that Patek could plausibly have made, inasmuch as the design elements used are concerned.

It is a surprisingly nice watch for the price of $108 (inclusive of shipping) which I paid for it (use the $20 coupon at the top right corner of the Watcheden website):

http://www.watcheden.net/patek-philippe-automatic-with-white-dial-brown-leather-strap-i-121934-p-1.html

I had originally bought the watch simply for the microrotor movement, but the rest of the watch is nicely made as well, and is an excellent value for the price.

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Okay, I decided to try using Kello to time the rate of the watch, and if it is to be believed, then it varies from -4sec/day to about -20sec/day depending on position, and it has a 21.6kbph movement. This seems pretty decent, particularly for a watch which doesn't have a second hand, and which has a significantly smaller balance wheel than normal, which I think accounts for the larger than average position variance. Even the photo on the dealer website has the regulator and stud very close together in essentially the same position as mine, so my guess is that it's unregulated from the factory, and just manufactured with the regulator and stud in that position.

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There is also a Piaget Altiplano that uses the same movement.

http://www.watcheden.net/piaget-altiplano-automatic-stick-markers-with-white-dial-leather-strap-i-128650-p-1.html

These are photos of a similar watch owned by iggi, which he bought in 2004 in the Czech Republic.

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Interestingly, this one has a central seconds hand, but appears to be the same movement as the one in my watch, so I guess this movement is capable of driving a central seconds hand. I wonder who produces this microrotor movement, someone suggested that it is a Ronda microrotor movement, but this does not appear to be quite the same.

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Ronda Harley 2538

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Seagull microrotor movement

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Gen Patek microrotor movement (Calibre 240)

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Okay, so after a day in my watchbox, the watch has lost maybe 5-10 seconds, it's difficult to be more precise than that, since there is no seconds hand. But in any case, this seems like a perfectly acceptable level of accuracy for a watch without a seconds hand.

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  • 2 months later...

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