Behind The Lens: The Ultra-Rare Patek Philippe Chronograph Reference 5070J-013

Credits: Article and images by @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2023/11/04/behind-the-lens-the-ultra-rare-patek-philippe-chronograph-reference-5070j-013-reprise/

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Two eras: Patek Philippe Reference 5070J-013 and Reference 2526, both in yellow gold

And once all of the light tent work was done, I did sneak the 5070J onto my wrist for a quick walk into the back garden to grab a wristshot.

On the wrist: Patek Philippe Reference 5070J-013

Shooting the Patek Philippe Reference 5070J

To be honest, I was expecting this watch to be considerably more challenging to shoot than it turned out to be given its wide, polished bezel, dark dial, and yellow hands. The bombé curves of the feuille hands helped a lot in catching at least some light from every angle I tried.

I also had fun capturing some images from non-traditional angles and found to my pleasant surprise that the somewhat uniform tones of the dial didn’t confound my focus stacking software and result in a bunch of fuzzy stacking artifacts.

Low-angle view, Patek Philippe Reference 5070J-013

If you check out the image above, you can see that there looks to be a bit of shiny lacquer on the brushed dial, which both gives some depth to the perception of the brushing and allows for some attractive reflections of the hands, indices, and printed markings.

Once I got a bit of practice with positioning and lighting, things progressed fairly smoothly; and I should mention that the owner did me a real favor by presenting the watch to me in super-clean condition, saving all sorts of effort in cleaning before shooting and retouching afterwards.

Out of the darkness: Caliber CH 27-70

The fact that the movement is recessed into that field of gold bezel helps to bring some real depth to moody shots against a dark background as shown above, but the watch also lent itself well to some experimentation with a higher-key approach, as shown below.

Catching the light: Patek Philippe Caliber CH 27-70

Parting thoughts

If I have one wish for you, it’s that your friends are as generous as mine! It was a real treat for me to have the chance to handle, research, photograph, and (very briefly) wear this beauty, and you can be sure that once our watch group’s tradition of frequent in-person lunches can be resumed, I’ll be bugging my pal to bring this one out of the vault for another look.

I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on this piece and your experiences with “loaners” from friends in the comments below. In the meantime, happy wearing and happy shooting!

Parting shot: ultra-rare Patek Philippe Reference 5070J-013

Quick Facts Patek Philippe Reference 5070J-013 “London” edition
Case: 42 mm, yellow gold; sapphire crystal and case back
Dial and hands: brown with sunburst finish; white tachymeter scale and markings; yellow gold applied Arabic numerals; yellow gold feuille hands
Movement: manually wound Caliber CH 27-70; 18,000 vph/2.5 Hz frequency, Geneva Seal, power reserve max. 60 hours
Functions: hours, minutes, subsidiary seconds; 30-minute chronograph
Limitation: approximately five pieces
Original retail price: £81,490 (approx. $127,000 in 2015)
Current price: unavailable
Production year: approx. 2015

* This article was first published on November 6, 2020 at Behind The Lens: The Ultra-Rare Patek Philippe Reference 5070J-013.