Patek Philippe

Perpetual Calendar (Blue Dial)

Name: Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar (Blue Dial)
Brand: Patek Philippe
SKU: 5236P-001
Availability: PreOrder

Ref. 5236P-001

On requestSourced to order

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Case41.3mm platinum

DialBlue

Movement31-260 PS QL

ComplicationPerpetual calendar

StrapPlatinum

Year2023

Patek Philippe has made perpetual calendars since 1925, watches that will not need a correction until 2100. They are the house’s signature complication and the backbone of its auction record.

This 2023 Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar wears a 41.3mm platinum case with a blue face and a perpetual calendar. The 31-260 PS QL movement drives it.

Fun fact: A perpetual calendar knows the length of every month and the leap year cycle, so it needs no correction until 2100. Patek has made one since 1925 and still assembles the module by hand on a movement it built for the purpose.

The perpetual calendar in one line

Reference5236P-001, In-Line Perpetual Calendar in platinum

Case41.3mm platinum, 11.07mm thick, water resistant to 30m

MovementCalibre 31-260 PS QL, self-winding platinum mini rotor, 38 to 48 hours

ProductionIntroduced 2021 at Watches and Wonders, no longer in the current collection

Why this one matters

Patek perpetual calendars have almost always spread the calendar around the dial: twin apertures under 12 and subdials below, the plan of the 3940 and its descendants. The 5236 does something else. Day, date and month sit in a single line under one window, a display Patek had used only once before, on a one-off 1972 pocket watch, and never in a serial wristwatch. The case follows the ref. 3448 lineage.

The date runs on a pair of discs rather than one, so its digits match the day and month in size, and the line changes over in a single movement at midnight. The calibre shares the 31-260 base introduced in the 5235 regulator, rebuilt here around a perpetual calendar and moon phase: 503 parts against 313. Platinum with the blue dial opened the reference in 2021, and Patek no longer lists it in the current collection.

The movement

Calibre 31-260 PS QL winds itself through an off centre platinum mini rotor, which lets the calendar module sit above the going train without adding the height a full rotor would. 503 parts, 55 jewels, 4Hz with a Gyromax balance and a Spiromax spring, and 38 to 48 hours in hand. PS is the small seconds, QL the perpetual calendar. The moon phase shares the seconds subdial at 6, which is part of why the lower half of the dial stays so quiet.

On the wrist

41.3mm across and 11.07mm thick, so the proportions read as current dress rather than large, though platinum carries weight that steel and gold do not. The blue dial darkens towards the rim and reads close to black indoors. The layout earns itself in daily use: you take in the whole date left to right, the way you read a line of text, with no hunting between subdials.

Questions we are asked about this reference

Does it have a moon phase?

Yes. The moon phase sits inside the small seconds subdial at 6. Day, date and month run in line under 12, with leap year and day/night in separate small apertures.

How often will it need correcting?

Not until 2100, provided it never stops. The reserve is 38 to 48 hours, so it wants regular wear or a winder if you want to leave the calendar alone.

Why was an in-line display difficult to build?

Three indications in one straight window leave no room for the usual overlapping discs, and the date has to keep its digits the same size as the day and the month. Patek's answer was a twin disc date and a calendar that steps over in one movement.

Perpetual Calendar

The calendar that needs no correction until 2100, in series production since 1941

Patek Philippe built the first perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1925, on a movement made in 1898 for a pendant watch, and brought the complication into series production in 1941 with the reference 1518 perpetual calendar chronograph. The mechanism carries the long and short months and the leap year cycle, and Patek states that it needs no correction until 2100. One layout recurs across the family, with day and month in apertures below 12 and the date read by a hand around a moon phase at 6, while other references set the calendar out in subdials read by hands, run it in a single line across the dial, or sweep the date on a retrograde hand. They sit under Grand Complications in the catalogue, in round gold and platinum cases.

day and month in apertures below 12

date read by a hand around the moon phase

leap year and 24 hour indications on the dial

round gold or platinum cases

Sizes in the family

39 to 41.3 mm on current references, earlier pieces smaller

Who it suits

For the buyer who wants the calendar to look after itself, and will keep the watch running so it never needs resetting.

See every Perpetual Calendar we have