In the past two years, Patek Philippe declared that the Chronograph Annual Calendar 5960 watch would be newly available in steel, in a move that makes sense for a brand that intends to attract a younger customer base in an already self-selective buyer’s market. Not particularly for pricing concerns, but valuable metals make it pretty much impossible for a watch to feel “sporty” in any way, let alone such a complicated watch like the 5960. The Patek Philippe replica 5960/1A Annual Calendar Chronograph watch with a black dial was released this year. The result is the natural progression of what the brand intended with their desire to capture a younger market, actually, it’s an aesthetic progress and refinement. 
The original 5960 was the first in-house chronograph made by Patek, so it’s not surprising that the brand would want to make sure they get these steel iterations just right in that it pleases collectors, enthusiasts, and of course, emotional cheap replica watches fans. The opaline/silver dial with black and red touches was a success but I don’t think I’m alone in preferring the newer black dial watch. Sporty, modern, and carrying an undoubtedly impressive movement, the Patek has successfully created a lust worthy piece here for those of us who respect tradition without being burdened by the weight of dusty and unchanging style.
The 40.5mm wide and 13.5mm thick polished stainless steel case houses the deep ebony black opaline dial that is fortunately legible and attractive. The applied white gold hour markers, red seconds and chronograph hands, and white aspects of the monocounter at 6 o’clock keep the dial from being overwhelming considering how much is going on with the Patek Philippe 5960/1A.
What I want to say more is the fact that I’m usually not the biggest fan of five-link bracelets, and this preference remains the same here. Above you can see the white gold and blue dial 5960, which I actually quite like on the leather strap, but the bracelet on the steel model is just not doing it for me.
Seen from the case-back and adorned with a 21k gold rotor with the replica Patek Philippe seal, the in-house 28-520 IRM QA 24H movement is a mouthful, but a very important and significant one at that. Our David Bredan went into the movement when the previous steel model was introduced and I’ll repeat his summary of the movement here below:
“The movement inside is the completely in-house manufactured CH 28-520 IRM QA 24. That translated into watch-terminology means that the movement comprises a fly-back chronograph, an annual calendar, a power-reserve indication.
It’s such a popular and best-selling watch!

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The collection of non-watch ephemera associated with special brands or retailers is a sideline for other collectors – an interesting sideline, but a sideline nonetheless. However, whisky glasses, sets of spoons, wacky retailer displays showing the tastes of another era among the logo’s golf balls, and what have you, every once in a while something comes up that depends on defies description. This is one of those times. At Antiquorum Geneva on November 12, a watch world still reeling from the record that I can safely say is one of the weirdest finds in non-watch, the replica watches brand collecting. It’s not exactly ephemera, because it’s a functioning clock, and it doesn’t really defy description, because one can describe it perfectly well: it’s a wiretapping device, made by the Patek Philippe replica, and used, or so the Antiquorum listing says, by the Swiss police for, well, wiretapping.  
The lot actually includes two units: the clock proper, which is unit ZL 4 N, and the lower unit which as far as I can tell was the one used for recording (it looks like you could use it to control up to four recording units). Now that said, in digging around I’ve discovered another listing for these two units which describe them, not as a wiretapping device, but as a master/slave setup, with the central clock up top, and the lower unit for controlling up to four slave clocks; we’re trying to see if we can establish which listing is actually right. Of course, the fake Patek at one time made very sophisticated master-slave electronic clock systems. The rationale for the clock, if this is a wiretapping device, would be that for the tap to be admissible as evidence, you have to be able to verify the exact time of the recording.
The Antiquorum listing for the lot says, “A fine and very rare, electronic wire tapping device and clock used by the Swiss police,” and goes on to laconically remark, “Clock in running condition, wire tapping untested.” The listing actually gives reference numbers for each unit so if you wanted to, you could theoretically get an extract from the archives for this thing, whatever the heck it actually is. The Patek did have an Electronic Division which it began in 1948, so I guess anything is possible. Naturally I really hope it’s a replica Patek Philippe wiretapping device.

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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.

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Patek Philippe launched two new models at the same time in 1938, six years after the first Calatrava, and both types had a lot in common. Both were 35mm, making them significantly larger than the other one and both retained the timeless, honest elegance of the Calatrava. But they were important different in other ways.
While the first model was produced mainly in gold, its objective clearly being to build on the success of the fake Patek’s classic dress line, and it went in another direction and addressed the demands of a new clientele. This model was one of the first Patek Philippe wristwatches to be made in series with a stainless steel case. It was introduced during an era when gold watches were in fashion and precious metals were surely thought of as better investments. So these watches had to provide something else. And they did.
To begin with, the cheap watch had a screw-down caseback, making it the first huge water-resistant Calatrava, and the watch offered better resistance to magnetic fields than most thanks to a soft iron inner case. These traits are the reason why people like Briggs Cunningham picked a stainless steel model over the more luxurious model. These watches could be enjoyed whatever the circumstances, and so their owners could be as carefree as one could be in the 1940s with a Calatrava.
One reason I find these watches fascinating is the variety of styles in which they come. Very seldom have I seen the same watch twice, and my reaction to them is almost always different. As a matter of fact, I don’t like all 565s equally, but that’s sort of the point with this watch.
Patek Philippe replica didn’t set itself too many rules when it came to making the fake watch. Many came in steel, but some were manufactured in gold. Some featured Arabic numerals, others occasionally had Roman numerals, and traditional Calatrava indexes even got the nod sometimes as well.
Quite a large number of the replica watches had seconds’ hands at six o’clock, but actually, there are exceptions – Patek Philippe also made examples with central seconds. During its 14-year production run, the original watch would receive only one movement update, at the very end, when Patek decommissioned caliber 12”’120 and replaced it with caliber 12”’400. It is the same thing with the other version.

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