High FIDELITY

Patek Philippe continues its quest to create the world’s best chiming watches and reinvents the minute repeater with Ref. 5750 Advanced Research.

- ASHOK SOMAN

When Patek Philippe announced a new advanced research project last year, the brand did not say it was for the new Ref. 5750 Advanced Research minute repeater. The world learned of this new mechanical timekeeping musical instrument at roughly the same time, a feat enabled by digital technology.

As usual, Patek Philippe put a lot of effort into the big reveal, showing a level of digital savoir faire beaten only by its own watchmaking acumen. According to Patek Philippe President Thierry Stern, the Ref. 5750 Advanced Research minute repeater is both louder and has better harmonics, and it performs best on the wrist.

By way of introduction, the manufacture followed up on its digital presentation with some specifics in the press information, including the following nuggets: Ref. 5750 Advanced Research is six times louder than plain vanilla repeaters; it does not sacrifice the Patek Philippe chiming watch’s vaunted sound quality and “long resonant fade out,” to achieve its decibel levels.

Still, Patek Philippe can be relied upon to be fastidious, and the Genevan brand always protects the particular quality of its chiming watches. For proof, you need only consider the fact that all Patek Philippe repeaters and sonneries are not waterresistant—technology in watchmaking clearly allows for some degree of water-resistance here, but Patek Philippe eschews this in favour of harmonics that it likes. There is an old-school charm to this approach, especially when one considers that Stern listens to every single repeater before it leaves the manufacture. To us, the personal touch of Stern matters more than any digital QC.