 | |
| Type | Automatic, Manual |
|---|---|
| Display | Analogue |
| Introduced | 1932 |
The Patek Philippe Calatrava is a line of dress watches built by Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe. [1] Known for its simple and elegant design, the Calatrava wristwatch has been a flagship model of Patek Philippe since its introduction. [2] [3] [4] The first version of the Calatrava was launched in 1932, inspired by the Bauhaus principle. [5] [6] [7]
Patek Philippe Calatrava wristwatch was introduced in 1932, and the first model was Ref. 96. [1] The watch was originally designed by Henri Stern soon after his father, a dial manufacturer, acquired Patek Philippe in 1932. [8] [9] Calatrava was introduced to help the company pass through the Great Depression smoothly. [8]
The original Calatrava Ref. 96 was in production for more than 40 years, and its successor models include Ref. 2526, Ref. 3520, Ref. 5196 and so on. [3] Introduced in 1985, Ref. 3919 was a most popular model in the Calatrava range, with the guilloché “Clous de Paris” bezel. [10] After 21 years, it was replaced in March 2006 by the slightly larger 5119 model. [5] This change in size reflected a growing trend for larger watches.
Patek Philippe has developed a quartz movement but it is not currently used in the Calatrava range. [11] The only Calatravas earlier using a quartz movement were the 3744 (E27 movement, no date, no second hand) and 3944 (E23 movement, date, second hand).
Some Calatravas (such as the current 5227) feature a date function, whereas others (such as the 5116, 5119, 5120, 5123, 5196) display only hours and minutes (and, in some cases, seconds). [12]
A Calatrava 2526 model retailed by Tiffany & Co. in 1954 was sold for US$642,500 at an auction in 2018. [13]
A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet, including metal bands, leather straps or any other kind of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket, often attached to a chain.
Rolex SA is a luxury watch manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally founded as Wilsdorf and Davis by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England in 1905, the company registered Rolex as the brand name of its watches in 1908, and became Rolex Watch Co. Ltd. in 1915. After World War I, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva due to the unfavorable economic situation in the post-war United Kingdom, and in 1920, Hans Wilsdorf registered Montres Rolex SA in Geneva as the new company name, which eventually became Rolex SA in later years. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust.
IWC International Watch Co. AG, doing business as IWC Schaffhausen, is a luxury Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Founded by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, IWC has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.
Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1903, the company was originally known as Louis Brandt et Frère - Omega Watch & Co. In 1982, the company officially changed its name to Omega SA, which is currently a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. Omega opened its museum to the public in Biel/Bienne in January 1984.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1839, located in Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Since 1932, it has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Vacheron ConstantinSA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1755. Since 1996, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Vacheron Constantin is the oldest Swiss manufacturer and one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its foundation in 1755. It employs around 1,200 people worldwide as of 2018, most of whom are based in the company's manufacturing plants in the Canton of Geneva and Vallée de Joux in Switzerland.
A. Lange & Söhne is a trademark of Lange Uhren GmbH, a German manufacturer of luxury and prestige watches. The company was originally founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Germany in 1845. The original A. Lange & Söhne was nationalized and ceased to exist in 1948, following the occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II. The current A. Lange & Söhne trademark was re-registered when Lange Uhren GmbH was founded in 1990 by Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange.
In horology, a complication is any feature of a mechanical timepiece beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds. A timepiece indicating only hours, minutes and seconds is known as a simple movement. Common complications include date or day-of-the-week indicators, alarms, chronographs (stopwatches), and automatic winding mechanisms. Complications may be found in any mechanical clock, but they are most notable in mechanical watches where the small size makes them difficult to design and assemble. A typical date-display chronograph may have up to 250 parts, while a particularly complex watch may have a thousand or more parts. Watches with several complications are referred to as grandes complications.
Breguet is a luxury watch, clock and jewelry manufacturer founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris, France in 1775. Since 1999, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. Headquartered in L'Abbaye, Switzerland, Breguet is one of the oldest surviving watchmaking brands and a pioneer of numerous watchmaking technologies such as the tourbillon, which was invented by Abraham Breguet in 1801. Abraham Breguet also invented and produced the world's first self-winding watch in 1780, as well as the world's first wristwatch in 1810.
Audemars Piguet Holding SA is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury mechanical watches and clocks, headquartered in Le Brassus, Switzerland. The company was founded by Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet in the Vallée de Joux in 1875, acquiring the name Audemars Piguet & Cie in 1881. The company has been family-owned since its founding.
Antoni Norbert Patek was a Polish pioneer in watchmaking and a creator of the Patek Philippe & Co., one of the most famous Swiss watchmaker companies.
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner is a line of sports watches designed for diving and manufactured by Rolex, and are known for their resistance to water and corrosion. The first Submariner was introduced to the public in 1954 at the Basel Watch Fair. It was the first watch to be waterproof up to 100m. The Rolex Submariner is considered "a classic among wristwatches", manufactured by one of the most widely recognized luxury brands in the world. Due to its huge popularity, there are many homage watches by well-established watchmakers, as well as illegal counterfeits. The Rolex Submariner is part of Rolex's Oyster Perpetual line.
In watchmaking, the quartz crisis was the upheaval in the industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world. It caused a significant decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of the world's watch production shifted to Asian companies such as Seiko, Citizen, and Casio in Japan, which embraced the new electronic technology.
Gérald Charles Genta was a Swiss watch designer and artist. He is known for his eponymous line of timepieces as well as his design work with other high-end watch manufacturers, including IWC, Omega SA, Universal Genève, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. Christie's auction house of New York has called Genta's work "the Fabergé of watches", while The Wall Street Journal has called them the "world's most complicated and pricey watches".
Universal Genève SA is a Swiss luxury watch company, founded in 1894 as Universal Watch. Since its beginnings, the company has produced complete watches with in-house movements, and throughout the 20th century, distributed many notable and important timepieces. Along with neighboring Geneva companies Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux, Patek Philippe and Rolex, Universal is internationally regarded for its style of craftsmanship and manufacture. In addition, the brand also makes historical claim for creating the first-ever chronographic wristwatch in 1917.
Antiquorum is an auctioneer of modern and vintage timepieces. Established in Geneva in 1974, Antiquorum was the first auction house to auction fine watches over the Internet in the 1990s.
The Omega Electroquartz was introduced in 1969 as the first production Swiss quartz watch. It was the collaboration of 20 Swiss watch companies and the movement was utilised by Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Omega SA amongst others. The Beta 21 movement used in the Electroquartz was accurate to 5 seconds per month, far better than any automatic or manual wind movement of the day.
The Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 is a single highly complicated mechanical pocket watch, featuring 57 complications. The watch was assembled by Vacheron Constantin and introduced in 2015. The company claims that it is the most complicated mechanical pocket watch ever created—followed up by Patek Philippe Calibre 89 assembled in 1989 and featuring 33 complications. The Reference 57260 took eight years to assemble. The watch has 2826 parts and 31 hands, weighs 957 grams, and spans 98mm.
Philippe Dufour is a Swiss-born watchmaker from Le Sentier, Vallée de Joux. He is regarded as the greatest master of modern watchmaking, and his watches are referenced as among the best ever made. He finishes all of his watches himself by hand. In 1992, Dufour was the first watchmaker to put arguably the most complex of complications in a wristwatch, a Sonnerie. His other two models include Duality and Simplicity.
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