Patek Philippe Tonneau Perpetual Calendar

A perpetual calendar is like a small computer on your wrist. Think of it this way: Imagine a watch that keeps track of not only the time, but also the date, the day of the week, and the month, tells you whether it’s a leap year or not, and what the current phase of the moon is. Oh, and one more thing — imagine it does all of this mechanically, using springs and gears, and that you only have to adjust it once every century or so. Crazy, right? Patek Philippe has been making such timepieces since the Second World War, and continues to make some of the most superlative quantieme perpetuelles on the market. This particular example, a Reference 5040P from the 2010s, is a spectacularly elegant model in an offbeat, tonneau-shaped case that remains understated despite its highly complicated nature. Magnifique!  Housed in a 39mm platinum case with a signed crown, a sapphire crystal, and a smooth bezel, it features a silver dial with applied, white gold ‘Breguet’ numerals, a matching ‘Breguet’