SJX Watches
Insight: Updated Criteria for the Patek Philippe Seal
Patek Philippe had an active 2024, not just because of the launch of the ref. 5330G World Time with Date, a massive collection of Rare Handcrafts, and of course the Cubitus. But equally notable was the announcement of updates to the Patek Philippe Seal. Buried on the last page of its 2024 Watches & Wonders brochure was some fine print about some updates to the brand’s internal certification that superseded the longstanding Poinçon de Genève in 2009. The updates applied to two things that watch enthusiasts love to argue about: water resistance and rate accuracy. Officially rated to 30 m and -1/+2 seconds a day Initial thoughts Water resistance is never far from the minds of watch geeks, so it’s no surprise that this is dominated the discourse when the announcement was made earlier in the year; the idea of a Nautilus rated to just 30 m was concerning to many. Apparently even the fact that the watch itself was unchanged did little to quiet the nerves. Perhaps because people enjoy the opportunity to punch up, far more attention was paid to the issue of water resistance than the meaningful updates made to timekeeping testing and certification, which cement Patek Philippe’s position as the leader in high-end mechanical timekeeping at scale. The cal. 240 PS CI J LU of the Cubitus ref. 5822P also features a Spiromax hairspring, clearly visible Thirty meters But let’s get water resistance out of the way. Patek Philippe now guarantees all of its water-resistant watches to ...
