Patek Philippe 5172G Chronograph 5172G-010 Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me, timosso at the1916company.com, for purchase pricing and availability questions concerning this watch. And this watch is a 2022 release based on the 2019 Patek Philippe 5172G chronograph. The original model featured a lovely blue dial. This one with a salmon dial proves Patek Philippe knows exactly how to tug on the heartstrings of collectors. A classic combination blackened dial features on a salmon base with a white gold case. This watch has a lot to offer. Now, like the original 5172G, this one is 41 millimeters in diameter, and I should be clear, this is the 5172G010. So you can see 41 in diameter, 11.8 millimeters thick from lug tip 49.2 millimeters with a 21 millimeter spacing in between the lugs. On my wrist, which is 16 centimeters in circumference, the strap is still fairly stiff. It hasn't been broken in, so I'm pulling it tight and I'm shrinking my wrist. The watch actually wears quite well. You could wear this on a wrist of 15 centimeters circumference once the strap breaks in. It's fairly flat. They're not ultra thin. Look how many steps there are to the flank of the case and the slope of the crystal. Yeah, you could definitely ride a cuff up and over that. In terms of down the barrel, you can see that I am compressing my wrist by pulling the strap tight, but I've still got some clearance over the top, which always exaggerates the width of the watch. It looks like the lugs are out beyond my wrist, but again, I am pulling the strap really tight. The strap's a lovely piece though. You could see an unusual transitional cut of alligator from small rectangular to medium rectangular, all the way up to large rectangular, and it is a black semi-gloss with a sheer cut edge that's lacquered for refinement, a monotone stitch, calfskin on the bottom, a Patek Philippe factory strap in excellent condition. You can see no crimping, no gouging, and it features pull-tap spring bars, so you can pop the strap off the case without a tool. This is a gray gold watch, which means it is the best kind of white gold alloy, 18-karat white that's white all the way through and needs no rhodium plating, so if you hear that term gray gold, that is what is being discussed, 18-karat white that is not rhodium plated. We have the Calatrava cross, which is the logo of Patek Philippe. You will see it also on the primary crown. Pop this open, we have a single fold deployant with a little radial spring that sockets into that hole and actually is quite secure. This system will give you a lot more protection against flying open than a conventional snapshot system. It doesn't have triggers, so it's not quite as secure as that sort of system, but the amount of retention is impressive. Some of these designs like the step case and the fluted lugs are drawn from the 5320 perpetual calendar design that bowed a few years before this watch, and so that's where those elements are coming from, and then they in turn are drawing from deeper Patek Philippe history. You can see we also have little turbine style rounded tasti tondi buttons that you'll probably recall from the 1463 if you are a Patek Philippe aficionado. We have a little bit of a countersink of the crown. You can see how it's somewhat recessed into the case band, so it doesn't stand out and become obtrusive, and then we have a very dramatically boxed and cambered sapphire designed to evoke a vintage plexiglass, and you can see the tiers of the case differentiating the different planes and breaking up the visual mass making it appear thinner than it is. A salmon dial, and they consciously decided to go with more of a vintage look here. Instead of having a tachymetric scale on the bezel, you have that older design of a tachymetric scale on the dial, so with the chronograph seconds and you can use the tachymetric scale to gauge the speed of something. It's calibrated to a thousand units, so presumably a thousand kilometers per hour. You're going to be timing things like aircraft and race cars, but if you're good with mental decimals, you can also use it for runners around a track. You can see a lot of the fascinating elements here, including blackened white gold hands, indices, and numerals for a super sharp contrast, syringe style hour and minute hands, a counterweighted lancet style blackened chronograph seconds hand. We have instantaneous jumping chronograph minutes, and you can see that the sub registers are countersunk, and since this is the 29535 family of Patek chronographs, you can see that the registers are slightly below the and because this is a modern in-house Patek Philippe caliber, you can see that it does feature a hacking seconds function. Chronograph action is excellent. It's not quite as light in feel as a Lange 951, but in my opinion, the slightly greater effort and sharper detent is preferable to the feel of the Lange Pusher, which verges on too light. Watch that beats at four hertz. Unlike the Lange, this one can grasp intervals as short as one eighth of a second because it is an eight beat per second movement. We're going to do a loom shot now because this watch, though a dress watch, is designed to be a versatile everyday companion, not something you pull out on occasion of a tuxedo, but something you wear all the time except when you are swimming. Plenty of loom, like I said, everyday friendly. Now, we'll take a look at the case back. The case back of this watch shows you caliber 29535PS Petite Second. By that, they mean this little running seconds hand over here. It's an in-house caliber Patek taken over from the previous Lemania many years ago. You can see it's a four hertz beat rate, free sprung Jaramax style balance, 33 joules, six position adjustment, overcoil hairspring, capped column wheel and lateral clutch. Then we have the instantaneous minute jumper over here with the paw and the paw wheel and all the chronograph parts are steel, either satinated or mirror polished on their tops. They're all beveled on their sides. Bridges are rhodium plated brass with stripes on their tops, bevels on their side, and where we have jewel sinks on the bridges, you can see they too have been internally beveled. We have engine turning in several different sizes on the base plate. And then you can see that the architecture is actually quite impressive and so is the detailing, which is why I always say choosing between the Lanca L951 and Patek's 29535PS is purely a matter of priorities. Do you prize the Swiss Geneva aesthetic of a chronograph movement or do you prefer the modern Glashutte variant? It's just a matter of opinion. Neither one is qualitatively better than the other. There is a lot to love. This is all 30 meters water resistant. And yes, I know Patek has made waves, pun intended, by talking about 30 meters being a real 30 meters today. But as your watch vizier, I cannot necessarily recommend swimming with a push down crown 30 meter watch. Patek says one thing, I always err on the side of caution. Just know this watch is designed to be used every single day. It is not something you pull out for the most rarefied genteel and gentle occasions. It's designed to be a daily driver. 65-hour power reserve again via a single barrel with solid upgrade on the previous La Mania and a timepiece whose column wheel feel probably defines excellence in the space. So reach out to team also at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.