Even before the fair had formally started, all of Patek’s Baselworld 2019 novelties were already on their website. Here’s a roundup from some of the more major pieces.

All of Patek Philippe’s 2019 novelties are right now on their website, and it’s not even day one at Baselworld. Why? It’s not like this was intentional. They clearly had their regular game play in place: tease with one novelty on the day before Press Day — which was the 5235/50R Annual Calendar, Regulator in rose gold that appeared on their Instagram earlier in the day — and then follow on with the full slew of watches once the fair officially opened.

Do a bit of trawling over your Instagram feed and you’ll realize that Patek had their Baselworld novelties leaked. Even Rolex was dealt the same fate this year. However, while it remains unyielding, Patek I suppose in an effort to curb speculation and misinformation, decided to publish everything.

In any case, to focus our energies on the good, onward we go, to the watches for a brief roundup.

5520P Alarm Travel Time

At 42.2mm, the 2019 5520P Alarm Travel Time is a direct descent of the familiar Calatrava Pilot Travel Time. The Caliber AL 30-660 S C FUS, newly developed for the timepiece, is an integrated movement that incorporates the alarm mechanism.

The alarm is enabled by a classic gong and hammer pair, with the alarm itself lasting for just about 40 seconds. You set the alarm by pulling the crown at 4 o’clock to its second stop. Time set for the alarm is indicated using the digital display at 12 o’clock. Alarms are set at 15-minute intervals.

To turn the alarm on and off you use the pusher at 2 o’clock, which is further reflected by the bell-shaped aperture above the digital display. There’s yet another aperture just under the digital display that shows whether your alarm set for AM or PM.

Functionality aside, Patek boasts that the movement is an extremely robust conceived one — being able to register an alarm at 7:15, even if you were to only set the alarm at 7:14. Perhaps the best bragging right remains that the 5520P Alarm Travel Time is now Patek’s first-ever water-resistant chiming timepiece — water resistant to 30 meters.

5078G Minute Repeater

No.2 on this list is our first Rare Handcrafts piece for the year: a new white gold variation of the ref. 5078, self-winding minute repeater. At 38mm, the watch remains a beautifully crafted stepped case timepiece that exudes more than meets the eye – particularly for how well the minute repeater trigger seems to melt into the shape of the watch.

Here, however, the simple watch has become an ornate piece with a motif created on its 18K gold dial using polished and matte finishes on the surface of black enamel.

5212A Calatrava Weekly Calendar

The 5212A brings a new type of calendar watch to Patek’s collection with a piece that is able to simultaneously display the date, day and the week of the year. Thanks to the integration of the month scale on the outer edge of the dial, using the hand that indicates the week of the year, you’re now also able to read off the month of the year.

The watch required for Patek to create a new movement, the 26-330 S C J SE. But beyond sheer functionality, what is more impressive is how charming and legible the watch appears to be even with as much information jammed into its dial. It’s all laid out in a logical, and not to mention, aesthetically pleasing manner.

And then there’s silvery opaline — almost pale salmon — dial placed within a steel Calatrava case at 40mm; Patek sure has a good-looking winner on their hands right there.

5172G Chronograph

Last year’s 7150/250R was a chronograph that many men — within the ranks of Revolution included — looked at and wished that there could be a more stripped back version of this 38mm beauty. And by stripped back, we meant sans-diamonds.

This year, Patek has done just that, in fact, using the same movement as in the 7150, in what could very well be likened to a sibling of the 5320G Perpetual Calendar. Key there being the three-tiered lugs and the syringe-shaped hour and minute hands. You also have the white gold Arabic numerals, which like the hands of the watch are also filled with luminescent coating.

But the head-turner here will be that blue — quite the uncommon hue of blue in watchmaking — used for the dial of the 5172G that seats deep against the stark white of the chronograph and seconds scales. If anything can be said in opposition to this watch, it would be that the watch is 41mm in diameter.