Master Of Calendars

Patek Philippe has an illustrious history with calendar complications – and a bright future as well.

- Wei-Yu Wang

Patek Philippe has a close history with the perpetual calendar, with a patent for one filed in 1889. It had existed before then, but of the watchmaking houses as we know them, it is one of the earliest to have established itself in this regard. It was also the first watchmaker to put one in a wristwatch in 1925, when it added lugs to what was originally meant to be a ladies’ pendant watch. At this time, perpetual calendars were generally oneoffcommissions for individuals but in 1941, Patek Philippe introduced its first serially produced perpetual calendars: Ref. 1526 and its sibling in the Ref. 1518 chronograph / perpetual calendar.