The Patek Philippe Grande Sonnerie 6301P

Grand Sonnerie, Petite Sonnerie, Minute-Repeating Grand Complication 

Patek Philippe tends to underpromise and overdeliver – with the majority of its 2020 novelties released around the middle part of this year, given the cancellation of Baselworld (of which Patek Philippe and Rolex, among others, are no longer a part, moving forward) – Switzerland’s finest watchmaker does keep the best for last.

2020 saw Patek deliver the standard production (as standard as a Patek repeater can be) Ref. 5303R, an openworked minute repeater- tourbillon first introduced as a highly limited edition for the marque’s Grand Exhibition in the island city of Singapore in November 2019.

There was also the very beautiful 5370 with a new, deep blue dial in grand feu enamel, as well as a mid-sized Pilot’s Travel Time with a mid-blue dial in the Ref. 7234G-001, an appealing piece for the modern traveller (when he or she is able to resume jet-setting again).

In June, almost akin to a nod to rumours that Patek may be refreshing the Calatrava line and to commemorate a new chapter with their new, SFR 600 million headquarters in Plan-Les-Ouates, Patek released the Ref. 6007A, a Calatrava in steel, featuring a grey-blue dial with a basket weave and radially-displayed numerals, almost speedometer-esque, mounted on an embossed calfskin strap. Limited to a thousand pieces, the aesthetics of this very contemporary Calatrava echoes that of the one-off Ref. 5208T created for Only Watch 2017.

Patek had all the bases covered with their 2020 releases, it would seem: the finest of grand complications in the 5303R, 5370P, and 5270J – to the new Pilot’s Watch, to the recently-released new Twenty~4 line. For longstanding collectors of the brand, the commemorative Calatrava.

So it was with excitement when I realised on Wednesday morning the 11th, Australian time, that Patek had released an entirely new reference, replete with a stand-alone combination of the watchmaker’s complications plus a few quite unexpected features. There had been anticipatory teasers from Patek itself for a new chiming piece – it is safe to say that the collecting community was not let down with this new “drop” for 2020.

Chiming Time

Firstly, the subjectives – I thought, what an appealingly symmetrical watch. The absence of the repeater slide on the left, coupled with the power reserve indicators for the movement and Sonnerie at 9′ and 3′ o’clock, respectively, make for a very orderly first impression.

The Sonnerie slide switch – the wearer picks from grande sonnerie, petite sonnerie, and silent modes – is very considerately located at 6′ o’clock, not breaking up the sinuous detail of the complex, beautiful case.

The 6310P features a carillon – that is, a striking mechanism with three gongs and three hammers, producing three different notes, rather than two on a standard repeater. When the repeater is activated, the hours and minutes are chimed in the standard way – but the quarters have a three-toned chime, rather than the standard “ding-dong“.

A quick summary of the terms grande sonnerie and petite sonnerie – it is, after all, the peak of watchmaking prowess and not features with which one may be regularly acquainted (unless of course, you are an Hour Glass client!).

• Petite Sonnerie: A watch that automatically strikes the (number of) hour/s on every full hour; strikes the (number of) quarter/s on every quarter.
• Grand Sonnerie: In addition to the petite sonnerie, but it also strikes the hour/s in addition to the quarter/s, on every quarter.
  • The wearer would therefore be able to tell, purely by listening, exactly what time it was every fifteen minutes.
• Minute repeater: Activated on demand, this complication chimes out the number of hours, number of quarters, and number of minutes – providing aural time-telling accuracy down to the minute.

The 6301P features a platinum case immediately reminiscent of that of the 5370P rattrapante and 5372P perpetual calendar rattrapante – which is to say, one of the very finest that Patek has made. Lug-to-lug, the case flanks are recessed and brushed, contrasting with the polished upper, external surfaces. The middle case is complex enough for one to infer that it were multi-part – it is in fact a single part, all the more advantageous for structural integrity, though making its finishing challenging enough to necessitate almost entirely hand application, the last part of which involves a sanding stick made of soft, slightly abrasive wood, applied in a perfectly parallel fashion.

Recognising good design is to notice what is, but also what is not – there are too many otherwise excellent watches ruined by excessively bulbous lugs or case profiles, and it is with aesthetic harmony that Patek particularly excels. On the 6301P, as on the rattrapante Refs. 5370P and 5372P, the sides of each lug are capped with a cabochon, a nod to the 1436 split-seconds chronograph made between ’38 to approximately ’70.

As to the unparalleled tonal excellence and movement finishing of these top-end chiming watches – I have written extensively about Patek Philippe minute repeaters and their Grand Complication range; the reader might find the intricacies of tonality, metallurgy and regulation fascinating.

(As a personal recollection, the single event at which I glimpsed an almost unbelievable array of chiming watches was at the Gala Dinner of the 2019 Singapore WatchArt Grand Exhibition very kindly hosted by Patek Philippe – a 5178G diagonally across from me; 5074P to my right – one of my absolute favourite watches; 5339G to my left – and yet it was difficult to ignore the other watches present. I was most grateful to attend; one wonders if such a large-scale exhibition will be feasible in the near future – this was barely three months before news of the novel virus began to emerge.)

Why I like it

The 6301P at first glance is traditional Patek Philippe at its best: understated, elegant, excellent in the purest sense. It is very thoughtfully executed – as mentioned, its movement is derived from that in the Grandmaster Chime, simply pared back to offer a concise whole of grand sonnerie, petite sonnerie, minute-repeater. But it wasn’t simply a trim and copy-paste job; for one, the very discreet, yet interesting petite seconds subdial at six-o-clock will tell you that.

Where the Grandmaster Chime had a moonphase display at six, the 6301P does with a rather intellectually-pleasing seconde morte, or deadbeat seconds; North American readers in particular would concede the English term is hardly flattering. But impressive it is; this is not a classical remontoir, which is directly powered by the escapement – here, the fourth wheel drives a spring lever mechanism which liberates a star wheel at a rate of once per second. This star wheel in turn drives the jumping seconds hand you see in the subdial at six.

The finishing of the movement is excellent, and unlike the double-display Grandmaster Chime, can be admired through the sapphire crystal caseback. I find the generous barrel bridge particularly attractive, occupying approximately half the surface area of the visible movement, its lines sinuous, lyrical; complementing the technical, imposing chiming and balance assembly.

There is no shortage of internal angles either; I count ten of them. The wide Geneva stripes, black polish, convex anglage and bright countersinks – Patek has gone the whole way.

The GS 36-750 PS IRM movement (and that of the Grandmaster Chime) features a number of unique traits in the world of Patek Philippe’s repeaters and even in the realm of high horology; the full balance bridge, for one. A full balance bridge is less susceptible to shock than a traditional balance cock; for this reason it is featured more often in sports watches (as an example, Rolex had used a balance cock in its 30XX movements before switching to a full balance bridge in its 31XX series).

To see Patek use a full balance bridge here is refreshing, both for aesthetic balance as well as its unusualness in a highly complicated, and hence theoretically more fragile watch. The generous use of silicon components is also notable: in the Spiromax hairspring as well as in the seconde morte mechanism.

Another interesting feature also shared with the Grandmaster Chime is the button-activated minute repeater: rather than pressing a slide at nine, the on-demand chiming works are activated by a co-axial button in the crown at three. This aesthetically augments the similarity between the 6301P and the wristwatches 5370P and 5372P; the co-axial button in those activates the rattrapante hand.

But perhaps the single element of the 6301P that most piques one’s interest are the luminous hands. Now, if you know anything about the conception of the minute repeater during the early 18th century, it was a time-telling device for the days before the electric light; one hadn’t the need to look at one’s watch to tell the time – and it is for this reason the minute repeater was also adopted by the visually impaired.

So the 6301P is somewhat subversive in the most discreet manner, almost (to me) dryly humorous; it is as if the most storied watchmaker in the world decided to incorporate the most familiar, utilitarian time-telling feature – luminous hands – that would make its pièce de résistance complication functionally redundant. But when one is Patek Philippe, success perhaps may be defined as the ability to comfortably stand outside all hierarchies and all expectations – to offer no justification for what is measurably excellent yet conceptually improbable. I really rather like it.