There’s an infinite amount of romance being able to tell the time anywhere in the world.
The advent of transcontinental and transatlantic jet travel made it possible for a person to sip an espresso in the Bar Della Pace in the morning and still make an 8 o’clock reservation at Lutèce that same evening. Nearly a hundred years earlier, to meet the demands prompted by the establishment of railway time in the 1860s, watchmakers such as Hamilton and Elgin developed railroad pocket chronometers that included a third hand to indicate an additional timezone. This set the framework of what was to come.
In the 1930s and 1940s, manufactures such as Vacheron Constantin and produced “world time” pocket watches using a special dial layout designed by Louis Cottier that showed the time across the globe’s different time zones simultaneously. In the 1950s, the advent (and immediacy) of jet travel — and the frequency at which transatlantic and transcontinental flights occurred — made it necessary for travelers to have a wristwatch that could display multiple time zones at once.
The Patek Philippe Reference 7130-001 is a modern reimagining of just such a watch. Rendered here in 18K white gold, it features a 36mm case with a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, a stunning diamond-set bezel, and a sapphire exhibition caseback framing the maison’s self-winding Calibre 240 HU micro-rotor movement.
The dial features a matching handset, applied indices, and a crema inner sector with a guilloché finish surrounded by a bi-color ring with silver denoting daytime and a contrasting dark brown tone signifying night. Working in tandem is a “world time” display with 24 individual city names adorned in white against a brown canvas. These features function harmoniously with a push of a rectangular pusher positioned at 10 o’clock.
Paired with a signed brown alligator leather strap with a signed 18K white gold deployant buckle, this piece is an accurate representation of the maison's ability to elevate a classic complication.
There’s a traveler’s watch, and then there’s a traveler’s watch — this 7130G is the latter.
