One Watch Collection Dilemma – Patek Philippe – 5167A-001
Could you ever limit your collection to just one watch? Could this watch be the Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167A-001?
Since more than one year now, I have been wearing and testing various watches – from Omega, Panerai, Hublot to Rolex and even Casio watches. I do appreciate different bits of each watch and I am pretty sure I could easily build a nice collection, based on 3 or 5 watches – that’s easy! How about building collection, based on just one wristwatch? Well, actually I wrote a post about choosing one watch and at that time I thought Rolex Submariner 116613LB and 16613 could be the ones to go for (check here). However, now, with all these watches worn on my wrist, I find myself more mature and I think that stainless-steel and gold is still too flashy for One Watch Collection.
I stumbled across this stainless-steel stunner once or twice, or three times and every single time I had this one impression inside – wow! How did Patek Philippe manage to create a sporty watch of such delicate and subtle nature, perfect in almost every aspect. The ‘Wow’ impression starts from the very first winding, when you can hear this beautifully engineered winding mechanism, the sound is amazingly satisfying to ears.
I was astonished by how simple and minimalistic this watch was. Initially, I didn’t like the watch by the look on press photos, I was saying it’s ugly – that’s a good lesson for me not to base my opinion on photos or one’s judgement. I love Patek Philippe for extraordinary attention to details and making a simple watch look like pure work of art.
It’s extremely comfortable on a wrist, it weighs literally nothing, just like a Richard Mille made of red quartz, but looking way better. Cushion-shaped case with distinctively brushed and polished finishes is coupled to a sporty ‘tropical’ strap with special abilities to withstand wear, salt water and UV radiation – that’s what our only watch in collection needs. Besides that, we’ve got a black embossed dial, which doesn’t look black at all. I adore this beautiful and intricate sunburst effect, when you play with different angles – really good for instagram shots (check below).
Legible and luminescent hour markers, along with Arabic numerals and hands complement this simple, but yet amazing Aquanaut, first launched in 1997.
As much as I hate the clasp in Patek Philippe Nautilus with a stainless-steel bracelet, the one presented here – double deployment clasp, accompanying the watch is nicely done and Calatrava cross nails it!
The questions asked in the lead of this post were ‘Could you ever limit your collection to just one watch?’ and ‘Could this watch be a Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167A-001?’. My answers are no and yes. I don’t think I could ever limit my collection to just one watch, instinctively I will always seek for weirder and more collectible watches. However, if I were to limit and fully commit myself to one watch, Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167A-001 could be the one to choose. It’s timeless, legible, mesmerising and if you ever find rubber strap boring, you can always hook it to an amazing stainless-steel bracelet.
