Today I’m going to mess around and see if I can make a Patek Philippe Calatrava 6119R-001. I’ve always liked this classic style, so I figured, why not give it a shot?
First off, I got all my tools and materials in order. It is not an easy task. I spent a whole day on preparation. I dug around for some info on this watch to get the specs right. Seems like it’s 39mm in diameter and 8.08mm thick. It’s water-resistant up to 30 meters, and has a sapphire crystal case back. The movement inside is 31mm across and only 2.55mm thick, with 164 parts. I can’t believe how many little bits go into one of these things!
I started with the case. Rose gold is what we’re after, so I got some of that and worked on shaping it. Getting that perfect circle was a bit of a pain, but I managed. Then I tried to make the bezel, you know, the ring around the face of the watch. This one’s got that cool Clous de Paris pattern, which is a fancy way of saying it’s got a bunch of tiny little pyramids all over it. Getting that pattern just right took forever! I used some special tools and a lot of patience.
- Started shaping the rose gold for the 39mm case.
- Worked on the bezel, trying to get the Clous de Paris pattern right.
Next up was the dial. This watch has a silvery grained dial with faceted rose gold hour markers. So, I got a thin piece of metal and gave it that grainy texture. Then I carefully made the hour markers and fixed them onto the dial. It looks awesome, but man, my eyes were tired after all that tiny detail work.
- Created the silvery grained texture on the dial.
- Attached the faceted rose gold hour markers.
Movement Assembly
The movement was the real challenge. I’m not a watchmaker, but I tried my best to put together something that at least looks like the 30-255 PS inside the real deal. I found some tiny gears and springs, and with a lot of trial and error, I managed to make a basic mechanism. Of course, it doesn’t work like a Patek Philippe movement, but it was a fun experiment.
- Assembled a basic movement with tiny gears and springs.
- It doesn’t work perfectly, but it resembles the 30-255 PS.
After I got the movement sorted, I put everything together. I put the dial on the movement, then carefully placed the whole thing inside the case. Then I attached the sapphire crystal case back so you can see all the bits inside. Last thing was the strap, just a simple brown leather one.
- Placed the dial onto the movement.
- Inserted the assembly into the rose gold case.
- Attached the sapphire crystal case back.
- Added a brown leather strap.
And there you have it! My attempt at remaking the Patek Philippe Calatrava 6119R-001. It doesn’t tell time perfectly, and it’s definitely not as fancy as the real thing, but I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. It was a ton of work, but a really fun project. I definitely have a new appreciation for watchmakers now. They’re like artists and engineers rolled into one.
Alright, that’s it for my little watchmaking adventure. Hope you enjoyed hearing about it. Maybe next time I’ll try something even crazier!
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