Getting into a healthy habit of going to a park for a walk. This time I am accompanied by one of my favourite Patek Philippe watches of all time – Pilot Travel Time 5524G-001. A Patek Philippe that doesn’t look like Patek Philippe.

Living in a big and noisy city like London can be tiring. You are constantly surrounded by noise of all kind. Parks are one of the readily available, instant ways of retreat from this loud world, even if it’s just for few moments. 

A while ago, I had an opportunity to get to know better with one of my favourite Patek Philippe watches – Pilot Travel Time 5524G. The watch, which is disregarded by many watch collectors, supposedly because of not being a proper Patek Philippe timepiece. I don’t really want to get into the topic of how actually real is the watch I am discussing today. My aim is to spread the contagion on to people that are getting into watches. In this word, I like to focus purely on the design and functionality of luxury watches. Each real watch collector needs to feel a sustenance out of owning an expensive luxury wristwatch. These days, it’s getting much harder to buy what you actually like, due to various watch forums with people telling you what’s good or not. The thing with Patek Philippe? They are all amazing. 

This particular model strikes me with few things. I love its low-key presence one a wrist, created by a white gold case, instead of more standing out yellow or rose gold. Majority of people wouldn’t even notice you are wearing an expensive luxury wristwatch, that makes you a more unlikely target for ‘unpleasant’ people, willing to take your pride and joy away from you. However, you’ll be the one that knows it’s a beautiful timepiece, carved in white gold – you can definitely feel it on your wrist! 

What I also like about this timepiece is that it stands out with its case size and we are not talking a usual 38-40mm case size. In here, we are talking about 42mm solid gold case with, in my opinion, two, nicely matched pushers, which adjust local/home time in the watch.

The watch is incredibly comfortable on a wrist, it sits nice and secure. In this case, we’ve got a brown leather strap with white stitching on a pretty heavy Patek Philippe pin buckle. Brown is pretty much a classic combination, when we talk about pilot watches.

I have always been a huge fan of pilot watches. IWC, Zenith – these are the brands, which nailed their Pilot watches to perfection. However, Patek Philippe nailed it as well with big, over-sized luminescent Arabic numerals, thick hands and generally classic contrast, applied to the dial, which in fact, is blue.

I know I may sound like a weirdo, because of saying this, but I love Patek Philippe’s Travel Time function, even though I hate travelling. The brand figured out this function so cleverly that if you don’t travel, then the second – GMT hand can be hidden behind the luminescent hour-hand. Generally, it took me 2 hours to figure out the Travel Time.

Local/Home time apertures are both interesting in terms of functionality and design, they tie this watch together. Despite, being complicated, this timepiece is extremely legible in reading.

This watch is perfect for people who value versatility, opt in for something different than mainstream. It’s not a sports watch and also it’s not a dressy watch. It can be anything you want it to be.