Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater Watch Review
In 1924, Patek Philippe released its first wristwatch featuring a minute repeater, a complication coveted by legions of horophiles. In 2022, the prestigious Maison revisited the chiming mechanism, unveiling the Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater. Mark McArthur Christie provides an insight into this technical tour-de-force in his own inimitable style.
Minute Repeaters
Minute repeaters are the most wonderful anachronism. There is absolutely no logic to wanting a watch which, at the push of a button or the slide of a lever, chimes the hours, quarters and minutes on a pair of little gongs. A watch such as this has less practical use or purpose than a horse and carriage or a vintage Bristol 406 as a mode of daily transport. But, that’s what makes them utterly wonderful. There is much glory in doing something solely for the pure joy and delight it will confer.
Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater – the ultimate chiming watch?
The Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater is almost the epitome of something done for its own wonderful sake. It costs more than most houses, is made from platinum, has gongs inside the case that are also made from platinum and has its own, built-in steampunk steel, sapphire glass and titanium amplifier. What’s not to love?
The Ref. 5750P minute repeater is the brainchild of Patek Philippe’s Advanced Research department. This is a group of watchmakers who are to horology what Bach was to fugue-writing. Their job is taking the art and science of mechanical horology – which most commentators would argue hasn’t actually progressed terribly far since Breguet and thereafter, and innovate. The latest project for the ARD was to find ways to make Patek’s repeaters louder. However, they weren’t allowed to do it the easy way by simply making PP’s watches larger and thus more resonant. Oh no, that would be too easy. Instead, the brief was “to amplify the volume of the time strike in a purely mechanical manner while preserving the excellent acoustic quality as well as the smallest possible dimensions.” As the advertising genius, David Ogilvy said, “Give me the freedom of a tight brief.”
Rather than create a new movement from scratch, they started with the venerable R27 movement, around since the late 1980s. But the solution to ‘how do we make the minute repeater louder?’ didn’t come from the movement itself, but rather the mechanism the team developed to sit on top of it.
Making something essentially mechanically louder really only allows for a few options. You either increase the energy input or find a way to enable more reverberation from the output. In minute repeater terms, that reduces your options to:
- make the resonator more efficient; the simplest way is by making it larger
- make the striking mechanism stronger or
- increase the resonance of the gongs themselves
As we’ve already seen, the simplest solution of ‘just make the case bigger with a resonance chamber’ was out. Nul points. Making the striking mechanism impart more force to the gongs was out too – that would affect the sweetness of the sound. In fact, Patek changed the hammer material from steel to softer platinum. That retained enough hardness for striking the gongs but with a warmer tone. The gongs were as resonant as they were going to get, so the only remaining option was to find another way of making the resonator better. And it was at this point that the steampunk sapphire, steel and titanium amplifier began taking shape.
Like most good ideas, it’s essentially simple – at least, with the benefit of hindsight. One imagines a few sleepless nights, a small lake of coffee and a lot of staring into space was needed before things dropped into place. Here’s how it works…
If you’re a follower of a certain Newcastle-born guitarist, you may have seen him playing a National Steel resonator guitar. In fact, it’s even on the cover of his Brothers in Arms album. Patek’s amplifier on the 5750 works in the same way; by using a resonator disc to increase the sound’s volume. Except here, rather than a set of six strings, it’s two platinum gongs. A thin steel bridge, screwed directly to the gong mounting plate, transmits the vibrations from the gongs to the sapphire disc that amplifies them. Why steel and not some posher metal? For exactly the same reasons tuning forks are made of steel – it’s the ideal balance of springiness and resonance. You get louder chimes but without a larger case or, indeed, any deterioration in the quality of sound.
The resonator assembly is completely uncoupled from the movement, has a gasket made from a composite and screws into a separate titanium ring designed to further amplify the sound. This has acoustic ducts at 12, 3, 6 and 9 that channel the sound outwards. They do it very successfully too. Where the original watch’s chimes are audible from 10 metres, the new system projects them for 60.
This does all come with a practicality premium, however. OK, you probably won’t want to wash the car in a half-a-million pound watch in any case, but the steampunk amplification system makes it definitely a bad and ruinously expensive idea. Although the holes in the case will keep out the dust thanks to a nylon polymer membrane, they won’t keep out water.
Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater – Caliber R27 PS
So what happens when you pull the slider to activate the minute repeater mechanism? The movement-powered hammers strike the circular, platinum gongs routed around the inside of the watchcase and they chime – a different tone for hours, quarters and minutes. Start the mechanism at 1148 and you’ll hear 11 hour chimes, three quarter-hour chimes and three minute chimes, all rather lovely. And, because that sapphire resonator is transparent, you can still enjoy the glories of the Caliber R27 PS movement inside the case.
PP cognoscenti will spot one clear difference – the offset micro-rotor isn’t the usual yellow gold. In keeping with the rest of the watch, it’s platinum and picks up the same design as the dial. The reason for the change of metal isn’t entirely aesthetic though. Platinum is denser than gold, so you can use a thinner winding weight allowing room for the resonator assembly.
This is all the more remarkable when you realise that Patek has created a movement with 342 parts that’s a mere 28mm in diameter and a gnat’s hair over 6mm deep. The Gyromax balance keeps things running at a respectable 3 Hz or 21,600 vph. Not that you’d plan on taking this watch off often (washing up, showers and car washing excepted), it’ll run without any fuss for a maximum of 48 hours.
After all that movement and resonator cleverness, you’d be forgiven for missing the dial. But a vast amount of craftsmanship has gone into it. It’s made in five parts with a white gold, with a snailed black nickel-plated base, and openworked lattice that resembles a classic spoked car wheel. Even better, at 6 is a sort of running seconds wheel that happily turns to mark the movement’s activity. The coffin hour markers are applied blackened white gold, whereas the hour and minute hands are white gold dauphine-style hands topped with a black transfer-print. The whole thing, despite being incredibly challenging to manufacture, manages to appear remarkably unfussy.
Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater – closing thoughts
You need a minute repeater in your life like you need a Brougham to ferry you to the supermarket. But ‘need’ is not what a watch like this is about; it’s about that sheer joy of making something because you can – and appreciating it for all the care and craft that’s gone into it. It’s a lovely thing indeed.
Further reading
Technical specifications
- Model: Patek Philippe 5750P Advanced Research Minute Repeater
- Case: platinum; diameter 40 mm; height 11.1 mm; not water resistant; sapphire crystal to the front and exhibition case back.
- Functions: Hours; minutes; small seconds; minute repeater
- Movement: Caliber R 27 PS; self-winding movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz); 39 jewels; minimum power reserve 43 hours/maximum 48 hours
- Strap: Hand-stitched alligator leather with large square scales, shiny orange with black contrast stitching, 950 platinum foldover clasp
- Price on application