[VIDEO] Patek Philippe Embraces ‘Vintage Style’ Look With 4 New References

Patek Philippe released a range of new references this year at Watches & Wonders, including a set of 4 watches in what they are calling “highly contemporary Vintage Style”. The new watches are split into 2 groups, with the 5326G and 5226G occupying one end, and the 5320G and 5172G the other. The latter getting traditional rose-gilt opaline dials, with the former taking a slightly more unexpected route, with heavy texture and beige lume. It’s a look we’ve seen plenty of in recent years, but never from a brand like Patek Philippe. 

Before we go further, I’ll stop to acknowledge a new colorway of the vaunted reference 5270, which now boasts a deep green fume dial with white accents in a platinum case. This is modern Patek at its finest (if you ask me), brought on trend with a green dial (mercifully, no Tiffany blue variant in sight). It’s beautiful, it’s expensive, and it’s fabulous.

There are more executions of that salmon/black colorway with the 5320G and 5172G, which both get the rose-gilt opaline treatment with charcoal gray gold applied to the hands and indices. It looks good, and it’s quite legible to boot, so it’s a win-win. The 5320 is a perpetual calendar that places the day and month within apertures at 12 o’clock, with the date read around a moonphase complication at 6 o’clock, flanked by a day/night and leap year indications on either side. All this, placed within a 40mm white gold case that measures just 11.1mm thick. 

The 5172 uses the same color scheme on their stunning hand-wound chronograph and it works exactly as well as it looks in photographs. The 41mm white gold case wears a bit large, however the stepped case tucks down into the wrist neatly. It’s a lot of dial, sure, but it’s one hell of a dial to take in.

Moving to the 5326G and 5226G things stray from the path a bit, and not necessarily in a bad way. Each of these watches get a rough texture set into a charcoal gray dial with a black gradient rim. The texture itself is said to have been inspired by the grip of a camera. It’s a bit random, but it works on the watch. What’s more peculiar here is the choice to run with beige lume for an aged look. This is a trend we’ve seen take hold across more accessible watches and one that, frankly, seems to be fading. Coming from a brand like Patek may signal a jumping of the shark to some extent. 

That said, I can’t deny that it looks pretty good here. The time and date reference 5226G is modeled after the 1947 reference 565, the so-called “night watchman” that was sold by Phillips in 2016 for CHF322,000. It nails the look in modern guise of course, including the aged numerals. It’s got a field/military watch vibe but at $39,000 I hesitate to call it a field watch that you’d actually want to wear, you know, in the field.

The 5326G follows suit but with a travel time complication joined by an annual calendar. Both white gold cases are finished with a hobnail motif along the case wall and exhibition casebacks showcasing their movements, the 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H (how’s that for a caliber name) for the $76,880 5326G, and the 26‑330 S C for the 5226. Patek Philippe.

A special thanks to our friend William Massena for his insight on these models.