Credits: Article and images by Tim Mosso @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2023/12/02/patek-philippe-reference-5101-magnum-opus-with-concealed-ten-day-tourbillon-2/
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Very few differences distinguish the four versions of the 5101. In its 2003 debut iteration, the 5101P included a salmon dial with blackened hands, matching numerals, and salmon-colored subdials; a Top Wesselton diamond sits between the lugs at 6 o’clock, the brand’s mark of a platinum case.
A 5101R with pink gold case and a grey dial came along in 2009; its sub-registers contrast in a lighter shade of grey. The 5101G from 2011 matches the warmth of white gold to a two-tone dial in metallic blue with silver registers, while 2012 witnessed the final variant as a 5101J bowed with a silver-white dial and a yellow gold case.
Reckoning production figures for the 5101 is a challenge. Each new model’s debut coincided with the discontinuation of the previous version.
Annual production of any given 5101 variant amounted to dozens, not hundreds, and it’s likely that fewer than 1,000 examples of all Patek Philippe ten-day tourbillon chronometers were manufactured.
The platinum 5101P was the original, most publicized, and most prolific model with perhaps 300-500 made; most of this was front-loaded in the first handful of model years.
The pink and white gold models ran for two years each, and 100 units is a fair guess for each variant. Patek Philippe’s yellow gold 5101G may have been available for less than two full model years prior to its retirement.
Sales appeared to have slowed significantly during the 2009-2013 run of the R, G, and J models, and unsold examples have been retailed new as recently as 2021.
The Gondolo-branded 5200 arrived in 2013, marking the end of the line for Reference 5101. While theoretically, the successor to both the 5101 and the 5100, the otherwise worthy 5200 lacked the panache, exclusivity, and grace of the previous tourbillon.
The 5101 is Patek Philippe’s achievement, but it feels like a high-water mark for the entire Swiss watch industry.
Its legacy lives on.
In my recent interview with Rexhep Rexhepi, the young watchmaker recalled his first encounter with the 5101 as a watershed moment in his five-year apprenticeship at Patek Philippe.
The style, the beauty, and the uncompromising standards of the ten-day tourbillon first spurred Rexhepi’s resolve to create his own watch – and to do so at a level commensurate to the 5101. Every Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain that leaves Geneva owes a small debt of gratitude to Patek Philippe’s magnum opus.
Quick Facts Patek Philippe 5101 Ten-Day Tourbillon
Case: 29.6 x 51.7 x 12.2 mm in white gold, pink gold, yellow gold, and platinum
Movement: manual-wind Caliber T 28-20 REC 10J PS IRM with one-minute tourbillon, 240-hour power reserve, 3 Hz/21,600 vph, official C.O.S.C. chronometer and Seal of Geneva until 2009, overcoil hairspring, free-sprung balance
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds; power reserve indicator
Production years (all variants): 2003-2013
Tim Mosso is media director and watch specialist at Watchbox.
* This article was first published on December 24, 2021 at Patek Philippe Reference 5101: Magnum Opus With Concealed Ten-Day Tourbillon.
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Credits: Article and images by Tim Mosso @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2023/12/02/patek-philippe-reference-5101-magnum-opus-with-concealed-ten-day-tourbillon-2/