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Lot Essay
With Patek Philippe Certificate of Origin dated 23 May 2013, spare platinum solid case back with the case number 4'584'885, platinum and black wooden pin, tag and Ref. 5550 product information. Furthermore delivered with original Patek Philippe veneered presentation box with winding mechanism and a glazed cut-out on its top engraved Patek Philippe Geneve - Advanced Research, a battery recharger with four different plugs inside a brown presentation box as well as another brown cardboard presentation box.
Fresh to the market, the present platinum watch is the only example of this reference to have come up for auction to date. The watch on offer here is furthermore in outstanding overall condition. Perpetual calendar reference 5550 in platinum was made in a limited series of only 300 examples.
The present watch belongs to the Patek Philippe Advanced Research line of watches. The first three of them were all annual calendar references, i.e. references 5250, 5350 and 5450. Reference 5550 is by contrast a perpetual calendar wristwatch and not an annual calendar one. It comes equipped with Patek Philippe ultra-thin automatic calibre 240 with a perpetual calendar. As the movement has, moreover, been upgraded to use silicium (Si), it has been renamed for this watch a calibre 240 Q Si. The Q stands for Quantième, which is French for perpetual.
What distinguishes the references 5550 from its predecessor Advanced Research watches - other than being a perpetual calendar - is that it uses the patented Oscillomax ensemble. The Oscillomax ensemble consists of the Gyromax-Si balance in Silinvar and 24K gold, the Spiromax balance in Silinvar as well as a refined Pulsomax escapement.
Patek Philippe filed a total of 17 patent applications for its Oscilomax subsystem.
The various elements of the Oscillomax ensemble bring the following improvements:
-- The Gyromax-Si: This innovative balance improves the accuracy and the power reserve of the movement.
-- The Spiromax: The Spiromax balance spring in Silinvar improves isochronism.
-- The Pulsomax escapement: The new Pulsomax escapement presented in 2011 is a refined version of its 2008 predecesssor. This further improved escapement increases the efficiency of the movement and improves its long-term reliability.
Fresh to the market, the present platinum watch is the only example of this reference to have come up for auction to date. The watch on offer here is furthermore in outstanding overall condition. Perpetual calendar reference 5550 in platinum was made in a limited series of only 300 examples.
The present watch belongs to the Patek Philippe Advanced Research line of watches. The first three of them were all annual calendar references, i.e. references 5250, 5350 and 5450. Reference 5550 is by contrast a perpetual calendar wristwatch and not an annual calendar one. It comes equipped with Patek Philippe ultra-thin automatic calibre 240 with a perpetual calendar. As the movement has, moreover, been upgraded to use silicium (Si), it has been renamed for this watch a calibre 240 Q Si. The Q stands for Quantième, which is French for perpetual.
What distinguishes the references 5550 from its predecessor Advanced Research watches - other than being a perpetual calendar - is that it uses the patented Oscillomax ensemble. The Oscillomax ensemble consists of the Gyromax-Si balance in Silinvar and 24K gold, the Spiromax balance in Silinvar as well as a refined Pulsomax escapement.
Patek Philippe filed a total of 17 patent applications for its Oscilomax subsystem.
The various elements of the Oscillomax ensemble bring the following improvements:
-- The Gyromax-Si: This innovative balance improves the accuracy and the power reserve of the movement.
-- The Spiromax: The Spiromax balance spring in Silinvar improves isochronism.
-- The Pulsomax escapement: The new Pulsomax escapement presented in 2011 is a refined version of its 2008 predecesssor. This further improved escapement increases the efficiency of the movement and improves its long-term reliability.