Calatrava 5196G White Gold

The Calatrava 5196G is a slim, round watch made by Patek Philippe in Geneva. It has a white-gold case, a silver-colored face and a leather strap. This dress watch tells the hours, minutes and seconds, and needs winding by hand.

Its design was already old when this version arrived in 2004. The first Calatrava appeared in 1932, with a round case, a smooth rim around the face and a separate little display for the seconds. Over the following decades, Patek made many versions, changing their size, decoration and mechanisms. The 5196 returned to the plain outline of that early watch.

In white gold, the case and face are close in color. The long hands and pointed hour markers give the pale dial some contrast. Each hand has two angled surfaces, so one side can look bright while the other appears dark. Watchmakers call these dauphine hands. There are no printed hour numerals and no date window. The small seconds hand turns below the two main hands.

The most noticeable change from the early Calatravas is size. The 5196 is 37 millimeters across, compared with roughly 31 for its early predecessor. It has more face to fill, yet the machinery inside remained small. Patek used the same hand-wound movement it had fitted to a previous 31-millimeter Calatrava.

That has a visible consequence. The seconds hand is attached to a shaft in the movement below the face. Enlarging the face does not move that shaft, so the little seconds display ends up well inward from the rim. The empty space beneath it can look awkward. It is one place where enlarging an old design changes more than its overall size.

The movement is thin, which helps keep the case slim. It is covered by a solid white-gold back, rather than a window through which to see the gears. The 5196G gives most of its space to the face: pale metal, pointed hands and that small seconds display, still occupying the position it had in a smaller watch.