Editor’s Note: Watches & Wonders (formerly SIHH) has moved online and Baselworld 2020 is canceled, but that hasn’t stopped watch brands large and small from debuting their new wares. Stay on top of this year’s best new watch releases here.
An eerie silence descended over the watch industry this year following the cancellation of Baselworld and the online-only iteration of Watches & Wonders Geneva (previously “SIHH”). When would Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Tudor release their new wares? The answer, of course, was: whenever the hell those three brands feel like it.
Well, today we’re finally getting a first look at a new model from one of those storied maisons — namely, Patek — in the form of a limited edition ref. 6007A-001 Calatrava produced in celebration of the firm’s new manufacture in Geneva. Limited to just 1,000 pieces, the new model is notable for being cased in stainless steel — a relative rarity amongst Patek Philippe timepieces and the second such debut from the brand in the past year or so. (Baselworld 2019, you may recall, saw the debut of the ref. 5212A Weekly Calendar in steel.)
The 6007A-001, which celebrates the opening of the maison’s new building in Plan-les-Ouates, features a gorgeous new blue dial with outer minute and inner hour tracks and applied white Arabic indices, plus a smaller concentric railway track with triangular hour markers. Within this is a “carbon”-style, cross-hatched texture in grey-blue, while a date aperture at 3 o’clock and a set of lacquered, white gold baton hands tie the dial together. Set within a 40mm, polished steel case, the look is distinctly modern and yet evocative of the history of the Calatrava line that dates back to the 1930s.
The watch is powered by the automatic calibre 324 S C movement and comes equipped with a calfskin blue leather strap with white decorative seams and prong buckle. A sapphire case back is marked with the cross of Catatrava — the longtime symbol of Patek Philippe — and the words “New Manufacture 2019.” The Geneva facility, which received its first teams in 2019, is meant to finally house all Patek manufacturing under one roof, and measures an impressive 200m long by 10 floors high. The 6007A-001, which celebrates it, is available for $28,351.
