Patek Philippe Replica

The Best Patek Philippe Grand Complications Clone Watch

The firm does not delve onto terra incognita with the Reference 5204. They have made just about every possible horological complication at least once since it was created in 1839. Their very first split seconds chronos were pocket-watches and they entered into the rattrapante period starting on February 24, 1924 when they started working on movement 198.000, which was a 13 ligne hunter caliber that had a subdial at the 6 o clock position and on the 12 position had a 30 elapsed minutes counter. The ebauche was from its partner Victorin Piguet and it had 19 jewels and depended on a pincer mechanism to control the split seconds hand together with a column wheel. It was sold on October 7 1924 to Tiffany & Co in NY. Earlier rattrapante models utilized a button at the crown to start, stop and return to zero. A button at 2 o’clock controlled the split seconds function. They had cushion shaped gold cases and in some of these wrist watches, the dials had tachymeter scales that could compute average speeds.

Grand Complications Replica

On May 11, 1925 the watchmakers began working on 198.012 movement for Replica Patek Philippe Grand Complications replicas which was comparable to the Lepine from Victorin Piguet. Its unusual feature was that all the elements for operation were on te case’s left side such as the little slide. It was sold on January 4, 1927.

A third model 198.018 was shipped on January 31, 1927 to Tiffany and Co. In the same year, there was another rattrapante chrono (198.076 movement) which first had a cushion shaped gold cse but in 1935 it switched to a round case because no one bought it. It finally left Patek Philippe a year later and there were perhaps no more than 12 of these early split seconds chronos.

In the 1930s the world suffered an economic crisis and Patek Philippe felt its impact as well. There was a marked dip in the sale of luxury watches in the US and as a result, Patek Philippe had to undergo a change in ownership. Brothers Jean and Charles Stern who had always had a lengthy business relationship with Patek bought majority of its shares in 1932 and they employed managing director Jean Pfister who was then director of the Tavannes Watch in Geneva. 

The Stern brothers and Pfister thought it best that Patek create its own in-house calibers and it began with the creation of classic hand wound movements in round or tonneau cases. The firm’s top brass was not yet fully ready to start making its own base movement for the chronos and there really wasn’t a need for it at the time. They were able to acquire time-tested, accurate and reliable chrono calibers that were hand wound from Valjoux SA such as the caliber 23VZ, a 5.85 mm high column wheel caliber that was unveiled in 1916.

The 23VZ caliber underwent a complete rewroking and was upgraded to meet the demands and traditional philosophy of Patek Philippe. Its watchmakers divided the cocks to bear the driving wheel, escape wheel and fourth wheel. They also equipped it with a swan’s neck fine adjustment device and a typical cover for the column wheel.

They did a ot of work on this movement and completely redesigned the coupling yoke to make it work like in early Piguet calibers. The movement was manually wound and it had a perpetual calendar for the first time in split seconds chronographs. 

This movement was found for the first time in Reference 130 and the outcome was legendary. It was finalized on September 8, 1934 and the new owners of Patek also introduced a new system of identifying watch models by numbers beginning with 96. The 12 ligne movement (198.393) had a 34mm diameter case and was sold on February 14 1938 and back then it cost 600 Swiss francs without the escapement. The escapement’s finished set of parts cost 124 Swiss francs and the perpetual calendar added 240 francs. To assemble, it cost an additional 240 francs. Patek made 3 watches for this type in all.

Patek created several split second Grand Complications chronographs that had the reference 1436. While we cannot determine the exact number of split seconds chronos in the years after the Stern brothers took over Patek, we do know that the total number was less than 200 and that means it was greatly loweer than the number of chronos with perpetual calendars made within the same time period. They had 281 examples of watch reference 1518 which had a perpetual calendar from 1941 to 1954.

The appearance of the first automatic chronographs in 1969 was one of the reasons why Valjoux in 1974 ended its production of hand-wound chronograph 23 VZ. The ebauches in stock however remained large enough to meet the requirements of Patek until the 80s. When they ran out of supply, Patek Philippe picked Nouvelle Lemania as its new supplier of ebauches. They formed an agreement regarding the regulation of the delivery of all the main components of Caliber 2320 which includes the plate. All others were handled by Patek Philippe in its manufacturing base in Geneva and they modified over 60% of the components created by Lemania. In 1986, Reference 3970 which had a perpetual calendar and chronograph debuted at the Basel Fair. Watch collectors had to wait a decade for the split seconds version of this watch, Reference 5004.

Replica Patek Philippe Grand Complications Price

Replica Patek Philippe Grand Complications with Swiss ETA clone movement was originaly  powered by Caliber CHR 27-70/150 and the movement was 8.86 tall with 404 components. Its mechanism for split seconds was made by Patek Philippe and it had a unique component that was shaped like an octopus hence the name Octopus Wheel.  This feature performed an innovative and significant function. With conventional mechanisms, the split seconds ruby roller runs continuously around the split seconds heart when the hand is stopped. As a result, it uses up a lot of energy reducing the amplitude of the balance. Patek Philippe replicas resolved majority of the issue by equipping the new movement with an isolator. It fully uncouples the split seconds wheel from the center wheel of the chrono as soon as the split seconds hand halts. The octopus wheel serves as an isolator wheel and it disconnects the split seconds lever when the pincer closes. It has 2 springs opposing each other and the close and open alternately. It’s a complicated construction, no doubt, but it does its job impressively. It does however increase the mass of the split seconds wheel so they needed to make the movement thicker. 

Such minor problems didn’t stop replica Patek Philippe Grand Complications from selling out the entire production of Reference 5004 which amounted to 1200 units per year. If someone wanted to get their hands on one, they had to wait years for their order to be delivered. And many did so, despite the high price. Starting in 2009, Patek stopped using Lemania ebauces albeit gradually and this ended Patek’s history in split seconds.