Patek Philippe

Calatrava with cal. 215 PS - the movement is bulid for decades, only 18 jewels but 28800 A/h or Calatrava Grand Tailler, ca 315 SC with only 21 600 A/h (30 jewels) does not sound up to date.I know that thy developed a Silinvar spring movement recntly but its not the price range i am looking for...so that movement is up to date but out of question.

I am quite new to Patek and am looking forward to your answers and input

bestNik

To me. a watch is different from hi-tech gadget. For hi-tech, you want the latest, most up-to-date technology (it's even better with tomorrow's).

But for watch. Hmm...

Just give you an example, let's look at 5980 and 5070...

5980:

- It's movement is the most up-to-date in-house developed movement. It was announced in 2006

- It has 28800A/h

- It is automatic

- It can time up to 12 hours

- It has fly-back function

- Its chrono second hand can be run continuously

- It has a date

5070:

- It's movement was designed in 1945; It's not in-house developed

- It has only 18000A/h

- It is just manual

- It can time up to 30 minutes only

- It has no fly-back function

- Its chrono second hand should not be run continuously (because it will damage the movement)

- It has no date

Specification-wise, 5980 win without any question.... but.... Let's look at the list price of 5980 vs 5070...

Actually, a lot of vintage PP watches is selling at a price higher than a similar modern PP. e.g. 2526 and 570 are just two examples of these.

My suggestion is "don't worry". As long as it is a proven PP movement, my only concern is whether I like the watch (how it looks and what complications it has, if any).

BTW, welcome to the club

Actually I think there is not much difference in the quality of movements nowadays, as most of them have been refined and modified many times.

Choose the one you like most.

Addi

on the 5070.... do you mean the large sweep second hand when you say the chrono hand? and am i understanding that you say it should NOT be run all the time? if so, this is something i never knew ...and considering i am thinking of purchasing one , this is good to know...thanks

For traditional chronograph movement  (e.g. 5070), there is a "clutch" mechanism to control the start / stop of the chrono second hand.

Basically, when the chronograph is running, the clutch "force" a second wheel (that is runnning continuously) with a spring againsts the wheel that controls the chrono second hand. This transmits the power to the chrono second hand and make it to run. This is also the source of the problem. This "pressure" causes the wear off of the wheels involved.

With 5960, it uses a new  "clutch" mechanism known as vertical clutch. It uses a special wheel to control the chrono second hand.
Basically, to my understanding, you can think of the special wheel as two wheels attached together vertically. There is a special mechanism to make these two wheels rotate in-sync (or rotate independently)... [ I believe there are a lot of watch experts that can explain better than I do. Please correct me if there is anything wrong in my description]

Here is a photo showing a vertical clutch mechanism [copied from Velociphile's blog]

[img]http://usera.imagecave.com/Velociphile/Velociblog/5100clutch.jpg[/img]

With the vertical clutch, the second chrono hand can be run continuously without significant wear off. (Actually, it is running 7 x 24... the start / stop just to control the "in-sync" or "independent" for the other wheel that is attached to the wheel.)

FYI, someone believe that it is very hard to service the vertical clutch wheel... I am not a watch maker so don't know the validity of this statement.

If you like automatics, you can get a vintage watch with the caliber 27-460 and you will have one heck of a movement. Alternatively, there are some calatrava-style watches that use the caliber 240, which has a microrotor, and, although not an extremely efficient winder, appears to be more highly regarded than the caliber 315.

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