The wristwatch that reads like a manifesto: 20 complications, 1,366 movement parts, and a reversible case — made for Patek’s 175th anniversary.
Introduction
When Patek Philippe unveiled the Grandmaster Chime Ref. 5175 in 2014 it was presented not merely as a new model but as a statement of craft, engineering and tradition. Built to mark the Manufacture’s 175th anniversary, the 5175 is widely regarded as the most complicated wristwatch Patek has produced to date. It bundles centuries of chiming-watch know-how, multiple technical firsts and an audaciously monumental aesthetic into a single, wearable object — albeit one intended for an extremely small, elite audience.
Short history
The Grandmaster Chime project took several years of development and multiple patents before arriving as the 5175. Patek’s goal was to create a chiming wristwatch that would combine grande and petite sonnerie, a minute repeater, an acoustic alarm, an instantaneous perpetual calendar with a four-digit year display, a second time zone and other highly complex functions — all in a wristwatch form. The model premiered in 2014 as a central piece of Patek’s 175th-anniversary collection and was produced in an ultra-limited series. One example is now preserved in the Patek Philippe Museum.
Production run and rarity
Patek produced only seven examples of the Ref. 5175 for the 175th anniversary release — six for private buyers and one kept (or donated/displayed) by the brand/museum. This tiny production run immediately positioned the 5175 as one of the rarest modern Patek wristwatches. The original retail pricing and its limited availability mean the 5175 circulates rarely on the secondary market, and when it does it commands attention and stratospheric prices.
Technical highlights
Movement / parts: the 5175 is driven by Caliber 300 — a hand-wound movement conceived specifically for this watch — comprising 1,366 parts. The movement was developed over many years and integrates multiple striking and timekeeping mechanisms.
Complications: 20 complications in total, including Grande Sonnerie, Petite Sonnerie, minute repeater, an acoustic alarm that actually chimes the alarm time (a Patek innovation in this class), an instantaneous perpetual calendar with a four-digit year, second time zone, and a date repeater. Several of these features were protected by patents tied to development of the model.
Power architecture: the case houses four mainspring barrels (to distribute energy between timekeeping and the energy-hungry chiming mechanisms), plus specially calculated power-reserve characteristics to prevent undesired wear or mis-strikes during chiming functions.
Case and dimensions: an imposing, hand-engraved rose-gold case of about 47.4 mm diameter and roughly 16 mm thick (dimensions vary slightly in press materials), engineered to be reversible — it can be worn with either dial facing up thanks to a patented rotating/reversing case mechanism. That reversing case is itself a technical feat: it had to preserve water-tightness and the complex routing of pushers and sound windows while allowing the case to flip.
The dials and the reversible case
One of the most immediately arresting features of the 5175 is that it has two full dials and a case that physically reverses. One dial (the “time / chiming” side) is dedicated to time display, the second time zone, alarm and chiming indicators; the other is a classical perpetual-calendar face (day, date, month, leap-year, and a prominent four-digit year window). The finishing — guilloché, hand-engraving and the Stern family’s traditional finishes on dial elements — is meant as a tribute to Patek’s historical dialmaking roots.
Acoustic engineering — chiming innovations
Chiming watches are a marriage of watchmaking and acoustics: the shape and materials of the case, the gongs’ metallurgy and the strike regulation all affect the sound. The 5175 introduced or consolidated several acoustic advances for wristwatches: it includes both grande and petite sonnerie (an exceptionally rare feature in wristwatches), a minute repeater, and an acoustic alarm which actually chimes the set alarm time rather than producing a simple buzz. Patek engineers developed specialized gongs and damping systems to make the sonnerie work reliably inside a wristwatch case. The result is a repertoire of chimes rarely heard from modern wristwatches.
Aesthetics and finishing
A Patek Philippe of this level is as much about finishing as about function. The 5175’s case is hand-engraved; its dials combine guilloché and opaline finishes with applied gold elements; movement bridges are finished and chamfered to the highest haute-horlogerie standards. The hobnail pattern on some 5175 examples echoes historical Patek design cues. The watch’s sheer size and ornate finishing make it more of a wearable objet d’art than a stealth daily timepiece.
Market and notable appearances
At launch the retail price was in the multi-million dollar/Swiss franc range (Patek’s press material and watch press at the time reported figures in the area of CHF 2.5–2.6 million). Given only seven units were made, the watch has since achieved much higher sums on the secondary market when examples have surfaced. In auctions and private sales it has been a headline piece: celebrity ownership and high-profile auctions have kept the model in the public eye. For example, a Grandmaster Chime that had been part of Sylvester Stallone’s collection sold at Sotheby’s New York for a multimillion-dollar sum in 2024, a sign of the model’s enduring collector appeal.
How the 5175 influenced later Patek work
The Grandmaster Chime—while not intended as a production model for wide distribution—served as a technical and philosophical laboratory: its Caliber 300 and the mechanical solutions for chiming and alarm functions informed later, more accessible grand complications from Patek, and the idea of combining multiple high-end complications with refined finishing in a wrist watch continued to influence the maison’s direction. The later (less exclusive) Grandmaster Chime models (e.g., Ref. 6300 and other variations) take some of the same concepts and present them in smaller runs or different executions.
Collectability & cultural status
There are multiple reasons a collector would revere the 5175: its technical record (most complicated Patek wristwatch at release), scarcity (seven pieces), historical significance (175th anniversary showpiece), and the prestige of Patek’s finishing and provenance. Because of those traits, the model sits at the intersection of technical museology and private collecting: it is as likely to be studied in a museum context as it is to be coveted at auction.
Final word:
The Grandmaster Chime Ref. 5175 is Patek Philippe’s theatrical summation of chiming-watch craft in wristwatch form: rare, technically pioneering, and meticulously finished. It is not a watch for subtlety but for declaration — a concentrated demonstration that traditional haute horlogerie can be reinterpreted at wrist scale when the house and its artisans are given the time and resources to do something unprecedented. For collectors and historians the 5175 is a milestone; for watchmakers it is a technical benchmark; and for the public it remains one of the most dramatic and talked-about mechanical wristwatches of the 21st century.
Sources and further reading
Key references used above (Patek press release and major watch press):
Patek Philippe press release for Ref. 5175; Hodinkee’s hands-on introduction; Atimelyperspective introduction; contemporary technical write-ups and auction / market coverage.
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