This BaselWorld saw Patek Philippe release six new Grand Complications. In a particularly important first for the company, two were for ladies. If you break the group down, four include minute repeaters, four perpetual calendars, four moon phase displays, three chronographs and one a tourbillion, which in typical Patek Philippe subtlety, you don't actually see on the front of the watch.
The belle of the ball is the 5208P, a Triple Complication that ranks second on the list of the house's most complicated watches after the legendary Sky Moon Tourbillon.
Housed in a classic Calatrava-style case in 44mm of platinum, the piece has three complications, each of which would easily qualify as the collector's 'holy grail'.
The movement reference number is Calibre R CH 27 PS QI, and owes its existence to developments with many of the watchmaker's other movements, though with some major modifications.
Each is set up, engineered or positioned in a particular way, and what is best for one may be almost impossible for the other. If you think of each complication as a level of intricate machinery, you would want the perpetual calendar closest to the dial in order for the indicator discs to be as flush and therefore as readable as possible.
The other complication mechanisms, however, did not lend themselves easily to this configuration, and much rethinking was needed in order to arrange the 701 individual parts in such a way that everything worked correctly.
