A new Quadruple Complication for connoisseurs
Having made its global debut as a limited edition in platinum on the occasion of the Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition “Watch Art” Tokyo in 2023 (5308P-010), Reference 5308 is entering the manufacture’s current collection. A true feat of miniaturization and energy management, this self-winding Quadruple Complication unites a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph endowed with two new patented mechanisms and an instantaneous perpetual calendar with aperture displays. The new caliber R CHR 27 PS QI movement with optimized performances greets the world in an elegant white-gold case with pierced lugs, harmonizing with an-ice-blue sunburst dial.
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In 2011, the manufacture continued this saga of exceptional pieces by presenting Reference 5208, a self-winding watch combining a minute repeater, a mono-pusher chronograph and an instantaneous perpetual calendar with aperture displays. The first Patek Philippe Triple Complication wristwatch to include a chronograph, Reference 5208 also stood out as one of the rare ultra-complicated watches to be self-winding. To enable the caliber R CH 27 PS QI movement to fulfill all its functions precisely and reliably, the manufacture’s engineers had to innovate, notably by placing the chronograph mechanism between the base movement (with minute repeater) and the perpetual calendar module –which proved an extremely complex task. In 2017, a unique version of this Triple Complication in titanium (5208T-010), donated to the charitable auction Only Watch, went under the hammer for 6.2 million Swiss francs.
From the Triple to the Quadruple Complication
Yet again, Patek Philippe has chosen to push back the frontiers of the great watchmaking art, by endowing this timepiece with a new additional function, and no minor one at that: a split-seconds, or rattrapante, (rattraper: to catch up) mechanism: an exceptional device that ranks–alongside the minute repeater and the tourbillon – as one of the top three most difficult horological complications to produce.
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A new caliber with optimized performances
The addition (between the base movement and the chronograph module) of a split-seconds mechanism, a voracious consumer of energy, represented a formidable challenge for the manufacture’s engineers. In particular, the specifications required that the volume of the new movement remain as compact as possible, with minimum extra thickness. Mission accomplished: despite the 80 parts needed to add the split-seconds function (799, compared with 719 on the caliber R CH 27 PS QI), the new caliber R CHR 27 PS QI saw an increase in thickness of only 1.93 mm (12.28 mm versus 10.35). For optimal integration of the split-seconds function (which consumes as much energy as the chronograph mechanism when the latter is running), the designers decided to boost the movement’s performance by taking action at several levels.
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A new patented system, eliminating friction of the chronograph wheel
To reduce energy consumption, the designers also turned their attention to the split-seconds chronograph by developing two innovations for which they have filed patent applications. The first concerns the coupling system. In a horizontal-clutch chronograph, the connection between the seconds wheel and the chronograph wheel (which carries the sweep seconds hand) is made via the clutch wheel actuated by the clutch lever. To avoid any vibration of the sweep hand, the usual chronograph wheels are equipped with a friction spring that exerts a slight braking effect –which consumes energy. Patek Philippe has eliminated that friction by replacing the usual conventionally toothed clutch wheel with an innovative system of backlash-compensation wheel.
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A new patented mechanism for isolating the split-seconds hand
The second patented innovation concerns the split-seconds mechanism, located beneath the chronograph module. In conventional split-seconds mechanisms, when the split-seconds hand is stopped (the jaws of the clamps close) for the read-out of an intermediate time, the split-seconds lever continues to rotate around the chronograph heart-piece –creating friction that consumes energy. In the new system developed by Patek Philippe, an isolator mechanism enables this lever to be raised, separating it from the chronograph mobile. This prevents the stopping of the split-seconds mobile from influencing the amplitude of the balance –and thus the reliability of the movement, as well as its power reserve when the chronograph is engaged.
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A mono-pusher split-seconds chronograph
The monopusher chronograph with column wheel and horizontal clutch, distinguished by its particularly slender construction, displays 60-minute and 12-hour counters at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock respectively. Its single pusher at 2 o’clock enables the user to actuate the start, stop and re-set functions successively (a 3-step chronograph). The split-seconds hand, equipped with its own column wheel, is operated by the pusher at 4 o’clock.
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A minute repeater chiming on two gongs
The minute repeater chiming on two classic gongs offers the legendary sound quality of the Patek Philippe chiming watches – Grand Complications that are the fruit of an expertise reserved for the elite of master watchmakers.
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It takes great experience, dexterity and a perfectly trained musical ear to obtain that “Patek Philippe sound” sought after by connoisseurs. Thierry Stern, president of the manufacture, personally listens to the chime of each minute repeater watch emerging from the workshops, before deciding whether it can be delivered to its lucky owner.
The sophistication of an instantaneous perpetual calendar with aperture displays
The instantaneous perpetual calendar with aperture displays, a feat reserved for a very select number of timepieces, benefits from the same exclusive mechanism, distinguished by two patents, introduced in 2008 in Reference 5207, and found again in 2011 in Reference 5208. This system, which alone accounts for 220 of the 799 parts comprising the movement, enables the jumps of the indications in 30 milliseconds in the four day/date/month/leap year apertures, even with a residual power reserve of ten hours. The task was made still more complex by the use of disk displays, since the mechanism must set in motion much greater masses than would a display by hands. The instantaneous display demands perfect energy control, to retain the disks and then release them in one go.
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A Ice-blue sunburst dial combining elegance and legibility
The new Quadruple Complication Reference 5308G-001 features an elegant Ice-blue sunburst dial presenting faceted applied hour markers and faceted dauphine-style hands, all in white gold with blue metallization. The accent is on legibility, ensuring that the thirteen indications controlled by the caliber R CHR 27 PS QI movement stand out clearly.
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The perpetual calendar’s day, date and month displays appear in three apertures arranged along an arc between 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, in an inlaid frame of white gold with blue metallization –with a slightly larger aperture for the date, the most important piece of information. Completing these calendar displays are two round apertures for the day/night indication at 8 o’clock and the leap-year cycle at 4 o’clock, both indispensable when setting the calendar.
A white-gold case with skeletonized or open worked lugs
To house this exceptional mechanism, Patek Philippe chose white gold. Endowed with the same design and diameter (42 mm) as Reference 5208, this classic, understated case, hand polished throughout, is distinguished by its concave bezel and skeletonized lugs.
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New patents
- Anti-backlash clutch wheel (European patent EP 3492779A1)
This system of an anti-backlash clutch wheel avoiding any vibration of the chronograph sweep-seconds hand makes it possible to eliminate friction of the chronograph wheel- and thereby to save energy.
- Isolation of the split-seconds hand (European patent EP 3179318A1)
This isolator mechanism makes it possible to raise the split-seconds lever when the split-seconds hand is stopped instead of allowing it to continue its course around the chronograph heart-piece, and thereby to reduce energy consumption.
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Patents taken over from caliber R TO 27 PS QI (Reference 5207, 2008)
- Timepiece with a calendar mechanism (European patent EP 1734419 A1)
This system of a large lever with an original and complex shape, comprising 15 parts, some of which are mobile, enables simultaneous and instantaneous actuation of all the perpetual calendar indications.
- Device actuating in its fall a large lever controlling the display of an instantaneous perpetual calendar in a timepiece equipped with a perpetual or secular perpetual calendar mechanism (Swiss patent 01080/07)
This system endowed with two jumper springs of equal power acting in opposite directions makes it possible to advance the date disk, at the change of the month, with a constant force, regardless of the duration of the elapsed month (28, 29, 30 or 31 days).
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Collection: GRAND COMPLICATIONS
Model: Quadruple COMPLICATIONS Repeater Perpetual Calendar Monopusher Chronograph
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Reference: 5308G-001
Case
Material: White gold with pierced lugs
Diameter: 42 mm
Width (from 3 to 9 o’clock with crown): 46.19 mm
Lug-to-lug: 52.11 mm
Total height (sapphire-crystal back to lugs): 17.71 mm
Height (crystal to crystal): 17.71 mm
Lug width: 22 mm
Delivered with two interchangeable case backs, one in sapphire crystal, the other in solid white gold
Not water-resistant, protected against humidity and dust
Dial and hands
18K white gold with Ice-blue sunburst
11 baton-style applied hour markers in 18K white gold with blue metallization
Triple-faceted dauphine-style hour and minute hands in 18K white gold with blue metallization
Subsidiary seconds hand in 18K white gold with blue metallization
Chronograph hand in steel, painted white
Split-seconds hand in steel, painted white
Baton-style 60-minute and 12-hour counter hands in 18K white gold
Railway-track minute scale transfer printed in white on the periphery of the blue opaline dial
Inlaid frames in 18K white gold with blue metallization, diamond polished, for the date, day and month apertures
Movement
Caliber R CHR 27 PS QI
Self-winding mechanical movement.
Minute repeater chiming on two classic gongs. Monopusher split-seconds chronograph with 60-minute and 12-hour counters. Subsidiary seconds. Instantaneous perpetual calendar with day, date, month, leap year and day/night indication in apertures. Moon phases.
Diameter: 32 mm (base movement with minute repeater and chronograph 28 mm, additional instantaneous perpetual calendar module 32 mm, additional split-seconds module 32 mm)
Height: 12.28 mm (base movement with minute repeater and chronograph 5.23 mm, additional instantaneous perpetual calendar module 2.75 mm, additional split-seconds module 4.30 mm)
Number of parts: 799
Number of jewels: 67
Power reserve: With chronograph stopped: min. 38 hours – max. 48 hours
Winding rotor: Mini-rotor in platinum, unidirectional winding
Frequency: 21 600 semi-oscillations per hour (3 Hz)
Balance : Gyromax®
Balance spring: Spiromax® (in Silinvar®)
Balance spring stud: Adjustable
Hours and minutes from the center
Chronograph hand (sweep seconds hand) from the center
Split-seconds hand (sweep seconds hand) from the center
Chronograph 60-minute counter at 3 o’clock
Chronograph 12-hour counter at 9 o’clock
Subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock
By apertures
Day between 10 and 11 o’clock
Date at 12 o’clock
Month between 1 and 2 o’clock
Moon phase at 6 o’clock
Day/night indication at 8 o’clock
Leap year at 4 o’clock
Push pieces
Chronograph pusher at 2 o’clock (3-step monopusher: start, stop and reset to zero)
Split-seconds pusher at 4 o’clock (stop and re-start)
Correctors
Day between 11 and 12 o’clock
Month between 12 and one o’clock
Moon phase between 5 and 6 o’clock
Date between 6 and 7 o’clock
Strap and buckle
Alligator leather with large square scales in shiny navy blue with patented triple-blade fold-over clasp in 18K white gold
Slide piece: Set into the caseband at 9 o’clock and used to actuate the minute repeater
Hallmark: Patek Philippe Seal
🔴Price: CHF 1,050,000💰
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Press Release - 2025
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PATEK PHILIPPE SA GENEVE
Chemin du Pont-du-Centenaire 141 – 1228 Plan-les-Ouates
P.O. Box 2654 – CH - 1211 Geneva 2 - Switzerland
Tel. + 41 22 884 20 20 – Fax + 41 22 884 25 47
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