Issued in a limited series of 15 pieces for the WATCH ARTTM grand exhibition in Tokyo 2023, the Patek Philippe Minute Repeater World Time Rose Gold Reference 5531R-014 features a Grand Feu cloisonné enamel dial center depicting the historic Chuo district in central Tokyo.
This Rare Handcrafts timepiece required 45 cm of 0.05 x 0.3 mm (~0.15 g) gold wire and a palette of 25 translucent, opaque, and opalescent enamel colors. In honor of the host city, the name Tokyo appears in red on the city disk.
After being launched as a limited edition at the 2017 Watch Art grand exhibition in New York, and then joining the standard
collection in 2018, this model has established itself as the first minute repeater that always strikes local time, meaning the time of the selected time zone appearing at 12 o’clock and displayed by the central hands.
Patek Philippe has equipped it with the new R 27 HU caliber, an unprecedented and patented construction. The two minute repeater gongs are not attached to the movement’s baseplate, but directly to the caseband to optimize the sound.
The Patek Philippe Minute Repeater World Time 5531R-014 watch has a self-winding system with a 22-carat gold mini rotor integrated into the movement, enabling it to maintain a particularly slender profile despite its complexity. The local time is indicated by a skeletonized rose gold hours hand in the shape of the “Southern Cross” constellation, while the minutes hand has a lozenge-shaped cutout.
The 452-part movement is housed in an elegant 40.2 mm rose gold case with a case middle and minute repeater slide piece adorned with Patek Philippe’s signature hand-guilloched hobnail pattern continuously revealed through the skeletonized lugs.
The hand-stitched shiny chocolate brown alligator leather strap is fitted with a rose gold fold-over clasp. The watch comes with two interchangeable case backs: one in sapphire crystal with the “Patek Philippe Tokyo” transfer; and the other in rose gold engraved with the same inscription.
