Patek Philippe

Park
547

• Show profile
• Show other posts

But where is the missing hour hand?

Nicholas,

Thank you for posting the lovely photos and your opinions, with which I almost entirely agree. 

We differ only on whether the grey dial 5960P beats the blue or black, a matter of taste to be sure.  You are more certain in your taste than I, as I love them all and enjoy the blue the most.

To me the great mystery is why on earth they omitted the chronograph hour hand.  I believe the 5960 and 5980 are the only references in Patek history that have included a 12-hour chronograph that could be started, stopped, and restarted without resetting.  This is an absolute necessity for those of us who time our work with a chronograph.  While I acknowledge that an hour hand on the chronograph is unnecessary for industrialists, for those timing cooking, parking meters, or horse races, or for the great majority who never use the chronograph, would it have been so hard to leave it there?  The movement was already designed for it, and the 5905 was a great opportunity to improve the monocounter so that it could be read like a clockface.  Patek went to the trouble to change the gearing of the chronograph minute hand so that it circulated once per hour instead of once per 30 minutes, so it would have been unnecessary to add another row of numerals.  In fact, they could have omitted the numerals on the subdial altogether. 

Patek, if you're reading this, please add back the chronograph hour totalizer to future releases of the 5905P.

Park