By Rebecca Doulton
When a watch company celebrates a birthday of such magnitude with so many presents, some of the smaller treats can be overlooked. Patek Philippe watches celebrated their 175th anniversary last year and eclipsed the stage with the lavish solid rose gold Grandmaster Chime watch, the most complicated - with a total of 20 complications - and ornate double-faced wristwatch from Patek Philippe to date.
With a view to actually wearing a watch on an everyday basis, the Swiss watchmaker also produced a series of commemorative Patek Philippe watches that recall legendary models from its illustrious past. Two of these, the World Time Moon Reference 7175 and the Multi-Scale Chronograph Reference 4675, have also been conceived as ladies' watches.
The chronograph complication is one of the most popular complications in the watch world, but in order to celebrate its birthday, Patek took things up a notch and endowed its Multi-Scale Chronograph with three logarithmic scales that can be used to compute speed via a tachymeter, distance with a telemeter and heartbeats per minute with a pulsometer. Three concentric scales represent the different functions, and the ladies' version features baguette diamond hour markers.
Using the principle of logarithmic graduation, Patek has equipped this portable calculator with three very useful functions, which are kept in time by a specially designed automatic calibre with an accuracy rate of -3 to +2 seconds per day. The 37mm ladies' watch is limited to 150 pieces in either white or rose gold and comes on a blue or purple alligator strap.
Moon-phase watches are perennial favourites and, for many women, the most poetic complication of them all. Patek Philippe aims higher and fuses a classic Moon-phase watch with a world time watch in the World Time Moon. Instead of squeezing the phases of the Moon into a small aperture at the bottom of the dial, the Moon is given centre stage and reproduced to a degree of realism - craters and all - that will delight stargazers.
The classic Patek world time discs, first launched in the 1930s, are placed at the periphery of the dial and indicate the time in all of the world's 24 time zones at a glance. A new calibre - 240 HU LU - was developed to combine a Moon phase complication with a 24 time zone watch based on an ultra-thin automatic movement with a gold micro rotor. The ladies' model, which is presented exclusively in rose gold and limited to 450 timepieces, features 70 brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel and is engraved with Patek Philippe 1839-2014 on the gold caseback.
Read our definitive guide to Patek Philippe women's watches
