One of the similarities of the fake Patek Philippe and replica Rolex is that both attract very strong defenders and very vocal detractors. However, it’s also true that just as the fake Rolex for a reason, so replica Patek for a reason and one area in which the company has traditionally excelled, has been in the making of highly complicated watches. In celebration of the opening of The Art of Watches Grand Exhibition on July 13, Patek has announced the release of a new complication: the World Time Minute Repeater New York 2017 Special Edition.
The Patek Philippe replica has strongly stressed its ability as a maker of chiming complications over the last few years. Of course one of the biggest pieces of news in this respect was the introduction in 2014 of the Grandmaster Chime, which is a kind of mechanical resumé of all the important chiming complication, besides, a number of technical features that were created typically for the watch. While many makers of repeaters have gone the route of deploying extensive research and development to find new ways of improving the volume and tone of chiming complications, the fake Patek has selected to position itself as a guardian and repository of the old school approach, with construction methods that by and large would be familiar to its watchmakers immediately from a generation or more in the past.
However, it’s also true that where and when the fake Patek Philippe chooses to innovate technically they can do so in very funny ways – the Grandmaster Chime was replete with interesting technical details, of course, this is just a suppose. They’ve done so in a remarkable way with the new model world time minute repeater. This is a rare combination of complications to start with, and generally in watches which have combined the two, there hasn’t been any functional mechanical connection between the repeater and the universal/world time complication; the repeater always chimes home time (as defined by the crown).
According to Patek, it includes making fundamental changes in the minute repeater mechanism. In a minute repeater, the hours, quarter hours, and minutes are “read” off snail cams by mechanical feelers. The hour snail isn’t driven directly by the motion works that drive the hands, as the minute and quarter snails are; On the contrary, it’s on a star wheel with 12 teeth that’s advanced one step per hour by the minute snail (one step on the star wheel for every full revolution of the minute snail).
There are many other features and unique attracting points of this sort of replica watches. Additional safety features are built into the watch as well – for example when the strike is activated, the world time mechanism is blocked preventing the damage that might occur should the owner attempt to adjust the world time mechanism during chiming.