Most watches with world time complications aren’t really complicated. Most would have two hour hands — one to indicate local time (the country you’re visiting) and another to indicate home time (your country of origin).
A more sophisticated world time complication typically consists of a rotating bezel or dial on the watch face that displays the names of major cities or time zones around the world. Each city or time zone is associated with a specific hour marker on the bezel or dial. By aligning the current city or time zone with the hour hand of the watch, the wearer can instantly see the time in other cities or time zones around the world without needing to perform any calculations. This was first conceptualised in 1931 by Louis Cottier in his Heures Universelles design. Six years later, Patek Philippe worked with Cottier to incorporate his concept into the historic red gold Reference 515.
This concept was improved upon at the turn of the millenium, with an exclusive patented mechanism in which a pusher adjusts the city disk, 24-hour disk and centre hour hand in one-hour intervals. This new feature would mark the then-revolutionary patented caliber 240 HU ultra-thin self-winding movement, first used in 2000’s Reference 5110.
This was generally the concept for subsequent World Time watches, as was the case for the Patek Philippe Reference 5231, the penultimate World Time expression from the Manufacture released in 2019.
That all changed, however, on Toki-no-Kinenbi, or Time Day, in Japan in 2023. Time Day is observed on 10 June as a day for all Japanese people to contemplate the importance of time and punctuality, and it is on this auspicious occasion that Patek Philippe began that year’s edition of Watch Art Grand Exhibition.
Over 500 timepieces and objets d’art were on display at the Sankaku Hiroba, a sprawling 3,250 sq m wedge-shaped glass pavilion, during the Grand Exhibition, including an update to their World Time collection, the Reference 5330G.
This new Reference builds upon the 240 HU, with a more complex patented movement dubbed the caliber 240 HU C. Adding to the already sophisticated complication is the date-display module, comprising of 70 parts, added to the central differential system with two concentric gear wheels managing the local-time date. When the outer larger gear turns clockwise, the date hand advances clockwise by one notch. When the inner gear (with 31 teeth, half of the outer gear) turns clockwise, the date hand moves back counterclockwise by one. When both gears turn clockwise together, the differential ensures the date display remains unchanged.
While it sounds complex, it’s extremely user-friendly. The pusher allows collectors to adjust, at one-hour intervals, the city ring, the 24-hour ring, the hour hand, and the date.
The patent for the caliber 240 HU C describes it as ‘a watch displaying times around the world,’ adding, ‘(this) mechanism with an innovative differential system makes it possible to synchronise the date display with local time and to adjust the date automatically at each correction of the time zone, notably when such a correction entails a change of date, either backwards or forwards.’
Despite its richer complications, the caliber 240 HU C is only 0.7mm thicker than the 240 HU, allowing the gorgeous 18K white gold case to remain a relatively compact 11.57mm in height. The case is 40mm in width and has a length of 50mm lug-to-lug. Paired with a calfskin leather strap, it’s a very comfortable wear.
The next time the reference 5330G returned to public attention after last year’s Watch Art Grand Exhibition would be at last month’s Watches and Wonders Geneva, this time in the form of the 5330G-001, this time in a blue-grey strap reminescent of denim, and a dial in the textured ‘carbon’ pattern, a motif checkered with two contrasting shades of blue.
It was easily one of the Manufacture’s most celebrated pieces at the fair, both for its aesthetics and for reminding us, once again, of how far the Patek Philippe World Time has come.
