What We Know
On the very date of Philippe Stern’s 85th birthday, perfect Patek Philippe replica watches has announced a new touching tribute to the former head of the brand with a new, novel version of Stern’s favorite complication. Philippe Stern’s son – and current President of Patek Philippe – Thierry Stern, commissioned the high quality UK fake watches as a series of 30 to honor his father’s lifelong dedication to horology. The reference 1938P, named for Philippe Stern’s birth year, is a platinum minute repeater with an alarm and features a Grand Feu enamel portrait of Philippe Stern on the dial.
The movement is a bit of a time capsule looking back over the senior Stern’s legacy with Patek. Back in 1989, on the occasion of cheap Patek Philippe replica watches‘ 150th anniversary, Philippe Stern announced the self-winding minute-repeater caliber “R 27”, the first movement of its kind designed and built entirely in-house in Patek’s workshops. Under Mr. Stern’s guidance, Patek slowly expanded its range of minute repeaters – his favorite grand complication – to become the largest collection in production across the industry.
Then, in 2014, Patek Philippe unveiled the Grandmaster Chime Reference 5175 for the manufacture’s 175th anniversary, the most complicated Patek Philippe wristwatch, equipped with the manually wound caliber 300 “GS AL 36-750 QIS FUS IRM”. That Swiss made copy watches combined five acoustic functions, including an alarm chiming the time.
Today, AAA Patek Philippe replica watches has combined these two achievements with the new 1938P movement, the new caliber “R AL 27 PS.” The movement is built off the base of the “R 27” and combines a minute repeater and alarm exclusively for the first time. The movement is self-winding (though it can be wound manually with the crown in the first position) with 48 hours of power reserve. The chiming function features two gongs that will chime out either the time during the activation of the minute repeater or if the alarm is active.
The luxury super clone watches required four new patents and 227 additional parts, including a lever and column wheel to select the chiming mode and a fusee device with a strike-work detent mechanism that temporarily disconnects the power source (the strike-work barrel drum) from the striking mechanism. Those four patents cover the following: Safely switching between chiming modes (alarm on or off as set by a pusher on the crown); delaying the alarm strike until the right moment; ensuring, in every case, the correct strike sequence of “hours, quarters, and minutes.”
The Breguet-style center alarm (with Breguet-style rose gold hand) has its own fascinating function. The alarm is set with the crown pulled out to the middle position, where the hand will point to a time on the dial as if it’s a 12-hour indicator and will only set in 15-minute increments, pointing to a scale in powdered rose gold on the edge of the dial. To allow the maximum number of chimes to be heard, the alarm of Patek Philippe Reference 1938P-001 replica watches for sale always strikes two minutes before the programmed time so that the wearer will get the full effect of the chime of the repeater instead of just the shorter gong sequence for only hours.
The platinum case measures 41mm thick with a total height of 14.2mm and a 49.4mm lug-to-lug. The Grand Feu black enamel dial has a portrait of Philippe Stern and Breguet numerals and hands in white gold (with the aforementioned rose-gold alarm hand). It’s also an officer’s-style case, which swings out to reveal both the movement and an engraving on the inside of the caseback: À mon père, 85 ans de passion horlogère. “To my father, 85 years of watchmaking passion.” For these 30 special pieces, the price is, of course, on request.
What We Think
We’ve been waiting for this announcement for a while, ever since Patek Philippe teased its announcement for Only Watch 2023. At that time, it was announced that Patek would be making Philippe Stern’s “favorite grand complication, which will feature an entirely new movement. This movement, designed and produced exclusively for this tribute watch, will never be used again.” Well, with the postponement of Only Watch 2023, we never saw Patek’s piece. The closest we came was some images online of the engraving on the inside of the officer’s-style caseback displayed at the Monaco Only Watch party. Now, we have the whole thing.
Technical achievement aside, there are a lot of curious little features that make me wonder how well-received this watch will be across the industry. But, it’s not really for me, or for any of the rest of the readers. This is a watch made for a father by a son, meant for their friends to enjoy. In that way it’s a fitting tribute to Philippe Stern, and who am I to judge a son’s gift to his father? But the inclusion of Philippe Stern’s face on the Grand Feu enamel dial makes more sense to me if the best fake watches was only being made for Philippe and Thierry. It’s the same for Philippe’s signature engraved and enamel on the back rotor, which somehow reminded me of the “Tiffany” 5711 caseback. I know many of the brand’s collectors deeply love the father and son, and I’ve heard this watch will be offered to those friends and business partners.
But there are the touches that any Patek lover would die for like Breguet numerals, and – yes – a novel movement. With only 30 pieces being made, and a promise to never make 2023 online replica watches with this movement again, there’s no doubt in my mind that this will be an incredibly collectible piece when it eventually hits the open market at auction someday. But we may have to wait a long time. I would guess none of those friends of Philippe Stern will be quick to put theirs up for sale.