It has been 10 years since the launch of the Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time, and at Watches and Wonders Geneva this year, the manufacture introduced its reinterpretation of the original Ref. 5524G-001.
The latest model of the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time, the Ref. 5524G-010 follows a decade-long evolution of travel watches, starting with the 42mm white-gold Ref. 5524G-001 with a deep-blue dial, which was discontinued earlier this year.
Staying true to the tenets of technicality, practicality, legibility and functionality set in motion by its progenitor, the Ref. 5524G-010 features the same core capabilities but presented with a softer and brighter aesthetic.
The 42mm watch is rendered again in white gold but now with an ivory-lacquer dial, applied numerals of blackened white gold with luminescent coating, and charcoal-grey white-gold sword-shaped hands.
Its engine is the 290-part calibre 26-330 S C FUS self-winding movement, with a Gyromax balance that oscillates at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4Hz), and a tolerance within –1/+2 seconds per day. This is the rate accuracy stipulated by the Patek Philippe Seal.
Finishing on the calibre, such as circular Geneva striping on the 21k-gold rotor, linear Geneva stripes on the bridges, and chamfered edges can be admired through the sapphire crystal caseback. A khaki-green composite-material strap with black topstitching and a white-gold clevis prong buckle completes the look.
The key feature of the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Ref. 5524G-010 is its exceptional ability to track and adjust to a second time zone. The skeletonised hour hand indicates home time, whereas the solid handset with luminescent coating indicates local time, and each time zone has its own day/night indicator on the dial.
The local hour is adjusted by lateral pushers at 8 o’clock (which skips it ahead in one-hour increments) and at 10 o’clock (which jumps it back in one- hour increments), and both pushers can be screwed down so they are not triggered by accident. And to protect the movement from unintended manipulation, a patented isolator system can disconnect the time-zone mechanism from the base movement.
The Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Ref. 5524G-010 is just the latest in a long line of Patek Philippe tool watches that stretches back to the 1930s, when the manufacture produced siderometers.
Those flight instruments, for celestial navigation, displayed the hour angle and helped pilots determine their position, a vital function in the days before navigation by radio or satellite. Patek Philippe’s first pilot watch in modern times, the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Ref.
5524G of 2015, distinguished itself with its use of the Calibre 324 S C FUS self-winding movement with Travel Time module, as well as a stately dial and an audacious design that evoked aircraft instrument panels.
Unveiled to celebrate the “The Art of Watches Grand Exhibition” in New York, the Calatrava Pilot New York 2017 Special Edition Ref. 5522, a limited run of 600, reimagined the design of the Patek Philippe pilot watch as a time-only three-hander. The following year, the manufacture transposed the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time and its functionalities into the more compact 37.5mm references 7234R and 7234G.
2019 saw the arrival of the alarm function in the form of the Alarm Travel Time Ref. 5520P, the first Patek Philippe watch with a mechanical 24-hour alarm linked to local time, with a classic acoustic gong wound around the movement so that it strikes like a minute repeater. And lastly, in 2023, the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Chronograph Ref. 5924G brought together a travel time with a date hand as well as a flyback chronograph for a horological behemoth of elegance and refined complications.
This story was first seen as part of the WOW #81 Autumn 2025 Issue
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