Públic
Patek Philippe offers an impressive collection of watches, including the Patek Philippe Calatrava, which happens to be one of the brand’s most popular watches. With pure lines and a minimalist design, the Calatrava is arguably the most recognizable round-shaped wristwatch in the world and one of the finest symbols of the Patek Philippe brand.
Elegant enough to charm collectors across generations, the massive demand for Calatrava watches had driven Patek to make several new models and collections for this line of watches. The company produces about 40,000 watches annually across its different collections. In addition to releasing new collections with other features, upgrades, and improvements, Patek occasionally rolls out limited edition watches to commemorate the brand’s special occasions or significant achievements.
The Calatrava line is one of the brand’s watches that has received several limited edition releases in the past few years, and they’re all very impressive. This post will explore some of the most popular limited-edition watches in the Patek Philippe Calatrava line.
7234 Calatrava Pilot Travel Time
Patek Philippe introduced the Pilot Style Calatrava in 2015, which has been quite popular since its release. The Pilot Travel-Time watches came in a mid-size format, with some, like the gold variant, being as small as 37.5mm. This mid-size design of the Pilot Time watches made them ideal as both a Patek Philippe Mens Watch and a female watch.
However, the brand has discontinued the production of these mid-sized Calatrava watches, focusing instead on the larger 42mm versions like the ref. 5524R and 5524G. Consequently, many of the mid-range watches are in limited supply.
The 7234 Calatrava Pilot Travel Time is one of the watches in this category. It was based on the design of the original pilot-time released in 2015 but featured a blue-gray dial and strap, a shade Patek claims was inspired by the Southeast Asian seas.
The stainless steel version of this watch was even more limited than the others in the discontinued collection, with Patek making just 400 pieces for the Watch Art Grand Exhibition, which was held in Singapore in 2019.
The sapphire-crystal case back is transparent, revealing the self-winding movement that powers the watch. It also has the words “PATEK PHILIPPE SINGAPORE 2019” Inscribed boldly on it. The travel timer complication in this watch allows it to read a second-time zone. It also has a day/night indicator that can be used for both home and away time.
Patek Philippe 5522A Limited Edition Pilot’s Calatrava
This watch is another one in Patek’s rare mid-sized Pilot Time collection. However, this one is slightly larger, with a 42mm case. It has a large diameter compared to other Pilot Time watches from Patek Philippe, but it’s still a relatively thin timepiece.
The 5522A was released in 2017 as a limited edition version, with only 600 pieces produced. Patek released this watch to celebrate the Art of Watches Grand Exhibition New York 2017, one of the largest watch exhibitions in the world.
The 10-day-long event occurred at Cipriani on 42nd Street, just across from Grand Central Station. It featured dozens of the most important pieces from the brand’s history and some of the watchmaker’s latest products.
The time-only ref 5522A looked much like the original reference 5524G pilots travel time from 2015. But this one had a stainless steel casing, a material rarely used for watches outside Patek Philippe’s casual sports collection. The time-only design is also surprising since many related watches in the Pilot Time collection are known for their complications.
The sapphire-crystal back of this watch was decorated with the words “PATEK PHILIPPE NEW YORK 2017” engraved boldly on it, confirming its provenance. All 600 pieces of this watch were allocated exclusively to the 89 official Patek retailers in the United States.
Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 6007A-001
One of Patek Philippe’s long-standing traditions is to launch a limited-edition watch to commemorate key events in the company’s history. The Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 6007A-001 was the limited edition timepiece released to celebrate the completion of Patek Philippe’s new production facility in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva.
Only 1000 pieces of this watch were produced, and its launch was announced at the 2020 Baselworld event. Patek began building this new facility in 2015 as part of plans to centralize all its production into one facility. The project was eventually completed in 2019.
The ref Ref. 6007A-001 is a unique stainless steel Calatrava with a gray-blue checkerboard patterned dial and luminous white Arabic numerals. The case has a 40 mm diameter and a sapphire crystal case back marked with the Calatrava cross and “New Manufacture 2019” inscribed in bold letters. It is powered by the automatic caliber 324 S C movement visible through the case back.
The Ref. 6007A-001’s dial was designed to be unique and inimitable, with the hour circle characterized by a railway track scale and triangular markers. In contrast, the hour and minutes had baton hands similar to the Ref. 6006 Calatrava. The watch’s calfskin strap is decorated with white seams and color-coordinated to match the dial center’s gray-blue hue and carbon-style texture.
Patek Philippe Calatrava ref. 5296R-016 and 5296G-017
Patek Philippe ref. 5296R-016 and 5296G-017 are two limited-edition timepieces released by Patek in 2019 to commemorate the 225th anniversary of Hausmann & Co. The historical watchmaking and jewelry shop has been a long-term partner of the Patek Philippe brand for over a century. The release of these watches also coincided with the opening of a new Patek Philippe Boutique.
The exclusive collection of timepieces was designed to honor the historical partnership between both brands while also celebrating the city of Rome, the birthplace and headquarters of Hausmann & Co.. The noon hour markers for the watches were written in Roman numerals with a unique concave shape to celebrate the Eternal City.
Since Hausmann & Co was turning 225, the three unique collection releases played with the linguistic construction of the number two hundred and twenty-five. For number two, Patek released two unique models for the ‘Rare Handcraft’ collection. For 100, the brand released a hundred watches (50 in rose gold and 50 in white gold) for the Calatrava ref. 5296 collection. And for Twenty-five, Patek released 25 timepieces for the World Time ref. 5230R collection.
The ref. 5296R-016 and ref 5296G-017 watches were arguably the most popular of the three collections in this limited release. The watches featured a rose gold case with a gray sunburst dial and a white gold case with a blue sunburst dial. The hand-stitched alligator straps were also paired to the dial in mat black and mat blue colors, respectively. The sapphire crystal back of these watches was engraved with the words “Hausmann & Co. 1794-2019”.
Patek Phillipe Calatrava Ref. 5565
The Patek Phillipe Calatrava Ref. 5565 is an older watch than the others on this list. It was released in 2006 as a limited edition model. Only 300 pieces of this watch were released to commemorate the opening of the new Patek boutique on Rue de Rhone in Geneva. The screw-down case back has the words Geneva Boutique engraved to commemorate Patek’s modern flagship store.
The ref. 5565 Calatrava is a rare and classy-looking watch. It features a 36mm steel case with no traditional bezel—instead, the case is just one solid piece of steel from lug to lug. The watch has a two-tone dial, an outer silver white section, and a vertical brushed inner section. The layout of the ref .5565’s dial is reminiscent of the sector dial.
There you have it. The most popular limited edition Patek Philippe Calatrava watches. While Patek Philippe watches are generally known for their rarity, these limited edition timepieces are even more difficult to find because only a small number were produced originally and are no longer in production. The only way to lay your hands on these watches is if you’re limited to finding one in the secondary market as a pre-owned piece.
