The 5100, which was also released in 2000, is for me one of the most beautiful and interesting simple watches that Patek has produced since the Mechanical Renaissance began in earnest. It is, in certain respects, diametrically opposed in complexity and intention to the Jules Audemars Equation Of Time, but it is its equal in terms of masterful presentation of horology as art and of watchmaking at the high end as the capacity to take infinite pains. It’s a watch that was written about the year it debuted, most entertainingly (in parts one and two of a two-part article), by Alan Downing, who wrote under the pseudonym Watchbore on Timezone.com. The watch was a technical tour-de-force – it was the first wristwatch ever to be made with a 10-day power reserve, a world record at the time – and was the brainchild of Patek’s long-time technical director, Jean-Pierre Musy, of whom Downing waggishly wrote, “Mr. Musy, who, as one of Switzerland’s most talented horological engineers, is unknown to the watch-buying public, is a stickler for what he calls le confort — the provision of every convenience the most exacting owner will ever think of requiring.”
Leer más
