Patek Philippe’s most significant new launch at Baselworld 2017 did not boast its most complicated movement or a new case style, but rather the latest Advanced Research calibre with a redesigned silicon hairspring, and more significantly, a compliant mechanism for the second time zone.
The Aquanaut Travel Time ref. 5650 Advanced Research is the first wristwatch to utilise a compliant mechanism time in watchmaking, making it an intriguing idea on multiple levels.The Aquanaut Travel Time ref. 5650 is the fifth in the Advanced Research series of watches – immediately preceded by the ref. 5550P perpetual calendar of 2011 – all of which were limited editions that served as platforms to demonstrate, and test in real life, new movement innovations.
While the earlier quartet of Advanced Research watches were all calendars (three annual and one perpetual), the new Aquanaut uses Patek Philippe’s cheap fake watches CA sporty dual time zone wristwatch as a base. The Aquanaut Advanced Research is equipped with the calibre 324 S C FUS.
Functionally it is identical to the movement inside the stock Aquanaut Travel Time ref. 5164 (the calibre number is identical), but the Advanced Research version goes about its business in a completely different manner. The first innovation rolled out with the new Aquanaut is a reshaped Spiromax hairspring.
The first silicon Patek Philippe waterproof fake watches hairspring was rolled out in 2006 with the Advanced Research ref. 5350. Specifically, the hairspring was made of Silinvar, Patek Philippe’s trade name for silicon covered in a thin oxide layer that serves to render the hairspring immune to temperature changes (which is the same sort of silicon used for almost all such hairsprings across the industry).
A decade on, nearly all Patek Philippe machinal movement replica watches produced today are equipped with the first generation Spiromax hairspring that had a single, outer terminal curve.