I won’t bury the lede here – the 6196P is the best Calatrava that Patek Philippe has released since I have been covering Swiss made replica watches. For those that are new here, that means this is the best Calatrava to be released by Patek in 17 years. And my friend chat GPT tells me that that 17 years is damn close to what could be described as “a generation”, so I’ll reframe: the 6196P is the best Calatrava in a generation. That is, of course, in my (not so) humble opinion, only – but man, did they get this one right. But let’s take a step back, first.
We all know the history of the Calatrava and how important it is, but if you’ve listened to me ramble about 1:1 UK fake watches for the past 15 years or so, I would often subtly throw shade at Patek’s line of time-only watches because the movement used in them were drastically and dramatically out of date, and frankly speaking, out of line with what one should expect from a Patek Philippe dress watch, or, even more pointedly, what a watch at that price point should deliver.
It is why, back in 2014, when we compared the best dress replica watches for sale we could at the time, Patek Philippe was not involved. Vacheron, Journe, and Lange, all, frankly speaking, were producing far more quantitative and compelling products. Also, the Calatravas at the time were just above $20,000, and we wanted to make the point that these three (then struggling!) manufacturers could deliver more watchmaking for less money than any Patek Calatrava.
It was the production of this video that really made me fall in love with Lange – the quality of its “entry level” pieces received the same attention to detail as its grand complications (something that remains true even today, with its KILLER 34mm 1815), and it was this video that first shown a light on how incredible a watch the Chronometre Bleu is, too. Since this video, I’ve long said that one of the best things about Lange is just that – no matter what level you are purchasing at, the quality is there.
With Patek in 2014? I could not say the same, at least about the caliber. The reason was that I felt that the use of caliber 215, a small 10 ligne caliber that was first introduced by Patek in, wait for it, 1974, was dramatically out of touch with the moment. And certainly for the sizing of the otherwise beautiful references 5196 – or the hand-wound Calatravas. Here is a three-way look at the Patek 5196, the watch replaced by the one I fell in love with today in my first appointment at Watches & Wonders 2025.
It’s lovely, isn’t it? Thin, platinum case, two tone dial with Breguet numerals just like the very best of the time-only high quality copy watches made by the very best brand, Patek Philippe, right? Sure, until you look at the watch that was based on – a steel 570 in the same configuration.
Notice anything about the sub-seconds register? Right, on the 5196, it was located just off the central pinion, wildly out of balance with the rest of the dial. It was too high up on the dial! And that is because the movement is sized at 10 lignes, or about 22mm in diameter, where these luxury replica watches were 37mm in diameter.
The balance was just really off. The reason for that was, as mentioned above, the caliber was introduced in 1974. But to be clear, this caliber made a lot of sense for a long time. I think the very best use of the caliber 215 was in the ultimate banker’s watch, the 3919. There is something very chic about the 3919, in all of its late 80s, 33mm, hob-nail-y charm. It was introduced in 1985, so, you know, it worked. But by the time Hodinkee came around and we were going hard at the details of every watch, some 35 years later, the caliber 215 just didn’t cut it anymore when you had people like VC, Journe, and Lange really investing in beautiful, hand-wound calibers made in this era.
The caliber 215 is 22m in diameter, 2.5mm thick, has 130 parts, 18 jewels, vibrates at 28,800 (4 Hz), and a power reserve of 44 hours. This is what was used in the 5196 in all metals, and though that reference has been out of the catalog for some years now, the 215 is, believe it or not, still used in four watches from Patek Philippe today: this, these, and this. Max case size of the Swiss AAA super clone watches Patek uses this caliber in now? 31 by 34mm in diameter, so it’s quite clear that they knew the 215 was best used in smaller cases.
Then, in 2021, the reference 6119G came out. It too is a Calatrava, here with the clous de Paris bezel, or hobnail bezel. It replaced the 5119, which, like the 5196, used the 215PS caliber and had the seconds register way too high up on the dial. And with that replica watches online came the new caliber 30-255PS. This, my friends, was a big deal. And though I wasn’t at Watches and Wonders that year (I was off taking care of my new baby girl – shout out to my girl Georgie!), it was this caliber that restored my faith in Patek as a watchmaker in the time-only segment. The caliber is beautiful – stunning large format bridges, wide Geneva stripes, a double barrel configuration to get us up to 65 hours of reserve, and on top of everything, it remained incredibly thin at 2.55mm. The 6119G/R is a very hot watch, and from what I can tell, jump-started an appreciation from collectors in the Calatrava again, and actually are semi-hard to get at retail, which hasn’t been the case for the Calatrava since as long as I’ve been doing this.
Then, just yesterday, Patek Philippe gave us the other format Calatrava with the 6169. Rich wrote the Introducing post here, and the feedback was excellent. What’s not to like, right? 38mm thin platinum case, this beautiful new hand wound movement, and a rose gilt opaline dial set against anthracite white gold applied faceted “obus”-style hour markers.
Now I’m no secret salmon lover – you guys know I own a 5270P with the same color dial, so I was expecting to really like the 6169P in person, but man, when I saw it, I fell head over heels.
This fake watches shop is, dare I say it, perfect. The case, the size, the caliber, and the dial are exactly what I needed to fall back in love with the idea of an entry-level Patek Philippe. It has been years since I’ve longed for a simple Patek, and in fact, I’ve never purchased one at retail because of it. This watch? I want it, and something tells me a lot of other people will, too.
Oh, and that running seconds register? Exactly where it should be on a dial. What I find interesting is that Patek chose to use a dial configuration that was really similar to that of the 5196G (white gold) instead of the multi-tone, Breguet style found on the last platinum version of the 5196. I am here for it, and the switch up is welcomed.
This is a tone of dial that is incredibly warm and almost casual – and one that, if I may say, works perfectly with how I dress often (including yesterday). And that is why I think this watch is elevated in my mind from “great”, to “greatest in a generation”. The top replica watches UK is not only technically wonderful, but aesthetically so, and that has been an issue with Patek Philippe as of late. I’m looking at you 5822P.
Did I mention the movement here looks simply fantastic? It really does. Through the exhibition casebook, you see the large, beautiful Patek Philippe sealed movements. If I were going to complain about something here it would be that I’d like to see a large balance wheel, simply for aesthetics, but that is about as nit-picky as I can get. The watch is just wonderful.
I think what makes the 6196P such a breakout success for me is manyfold: the nods to the past, the new caliber in a classical case, and a colorway that I’m a known lover of all mean a lot to me. But what means the most, perhaps, is that the 6196P restores my faith in Patek Philippe’s ability to build a time-only, simple watch that is actually beautiful. Over the past decade or so, it has felt as if Patek was seeking to be “cool” with its less complicated perfect copy watches, and while I’ve appreciated many of them, there are lots of brands that do cool better.
I want 2025 Swiss Patek Philippe replica watches to be beautiful, and elegant, and timeless, and until today, I’m not sure they’d had much that I could (personally) say accomplished that in the sub $50,000 range. I’m excluding all steel sports watches here because it’s a different thing altogether. Patek has made some lovely watches, certainly, but for time only in this range, I would’ve steered people towards the brands we featured in that 2014 video for not only movement quality but also simple aesthetics. Today, I can say, if you can get your hands on a 6196P, you will have one of the best time-only watches made today, in every way.
As for the price? It’s $47, 135. That’s a lot. Especially when those German guys down the hall have shown a beautiful 34mm watch with similar aesthetics for $25,400 (in gold, not platinum, mind you) on the same day. They’re different things, somehow, and to me, there will always be something special about a platinum-cased Patek Philippe, especially one as beautiful as this. As an aside, I believe the 6196P will do more to get younger, newer clients into the brand than the Cubitus will, but that’s another story for another day.
Today, on the second day of Watches & Wonders 2025, I’m just here to say to everyone at Patek Philippe in Geneva – Kudos, all, you really delivered an incredible watch that made me fall back in love with the brand, and I think I speak for lots of us out here when I say that. There is a saying among some of my friends and I when something from PP really hits home – we say “This is a real Patek”. We say it about the 2526, the 3700, the 5970, the 570, and the like. And I can say here, for certain, the 6169P is a very real China Patek Philippe fake watches wholesale.
