Patek Philippe Reference 5110: The World Time Wristwatch for the 21st Century

The revival of a historic complication, and the emergence of a new space for personalisations, limited editions and special orders.

By Lucas Botbol (@amplitude.watches) and Thomas Cardenas (@minutesdevoyages)

Source: @amplitude.watches

While World Time watches – also known as “travel-time” watches – do not date from the 20th century, their production and diffusion reached their peak during the 1940s and 1950s. Before then, the (few) international travellers had to spend several hours resetting their watch at every change of time zone. From the mid-1950s onwards (the Rolex GMT-Master was unveiled in 1954), dual-time-zone watches, known as “GMT” watches, developed and coincided with the dawn of the jet age. Aboard the De Havilland Comet and other Boeing 707s, the globetrotter therefore had a choice: to travel efficiently with a dual-time-zone watch; or, more poetically, with a travel-time watch on the wrist.

Moreover, World Time watches are extremely complex and artisanal to make, and were mastered by a single workshop: that of the watchmaker Louis Cottier, who delivered his first creations of the kind between 1930 and 1931. The combination of production difficulty and a practical usefulness confined to a brief period makes vintage “World Time” watches particularly rare – and, today, sought-after by collectors the world over.

From the 1930s, and to this day, one manufacture has been associated with World Time watches more than any other: Patek Philippe. It is estimated that 65% of Cottier’s output was destined for the brand bearing the Calatrava cross, with 80 to 90 pocket watches and more than 220 wristwatches, out of a total of 485 pieces made by the Carouge-based atelier. In 1966, Louis Cottier passed away, and his death also marked the end of production of the references 2523 and 2523/1 – the absolute icons of the World Time wristwatch.

In the year 2000, Patek Philippe decided to continue its pioneering role with the “World Time” complication and launched the reference 5110, which would be produced until 2006. Since then, at least one World Time wristwatch reference has been present without interruption in the Geneva manufacture’s catalogue.

In this study, we retrace Patek Philippe’s rehabilitation of the World Time, present the reference 5110 and its calibre 240 HU, then review the full range of its limited editions, special orders and prototype dials – around a hundred exceptional pieces in all.

Patek Philippe’s revival of historic complications

Reintroducing, at the turn of the 21st century, a mechanical complication that is utterly “useless” compared with the modern electronic devices we all carry may come as a surprise. To our eyes, the World Time plays a twofold role here.

First, it allows great creativity to be expressed thanks to a central disc ready to host guilloché work, cloisonné enamel and other traditional decorations of fine Swiss watchmaking – perfectly executed by Patek Philippe throughout the past 25 years, across countless variations.

Second, this complication carries a certain romanticism, an evocation of an era when travel was long and full of adventure.

As the quartz watch and, later, mobile phones rendered every mechanical watch de facto less accurate and practical day-to-day than their contemporary successors, the Swiss watchmakers chose to redouble their efforts, and to work once more on complications that are difficult to achieve – while bringing them into the modern age. It was in this context that Audemars Piguet revived the art of movement skeletonisation, while Patek Philippe introduced the references:

• 3940, a perpetual calendar incorporating, for the first time, an automatic movement with a micro-rotor, the legendary calibre 240;
• 3970, a perpetual calendar chronograph fitted with a sapphire crystal and, soon after its initial release, a display case-back;
• 5004, a split-seconds chronograph with perpetual calendar;
• and, finally, the 5110, a World Time wristwatch.

These four models, introduced under the leadership of Philippe Stern, president of Patek Philippe, reinterpret the Geneva house’s historic complications in a style that is at once classical and yet draws on new technical possibilities that appeared in the late 20th century, among them the sapphire crystal – which also made the display case-back possible – and the micro-rotor.

The reference 5110: the World Time watch for the 21st century

Patek Philippe advertisement from a magazine

The reference 5110 has a 37 mm-diameter case with a domed bezel, an elegant guilloché dial, and elongated lugs that hug the wrist. Its movement, the calibre 240 HU, with its 22-carat gold micro-rotor, allows for a particularly slim watch. The appearance of the pusher at 10 o’clock (a Patek Philippe patent), which makes the local time zone “jump” at each press, makes operating the World Time function remarkably quick and easy – and, for the first time, without disturbing the running of the watch. These qualities immediately won over collectors.

The 5110 was produced for 6 years, from 2000 to 2006, in 4 materials: yellow gold, rose gold, white gold and platinum. This short window makes it the series World Time reference with the shortest production run in Patek Philippe’s history. As we shall see, it is also the reference that hosted the fewest limited series and special orders of the modern era.

Illustration of the patented complication from the brochure supplied with the Ref. 5110, showing a cutaway of the movement and how the mechanism acts on the dial once the 10 o’clock pusher is pressed. Source: Patek Philippe

The reference 5110 as a canvas for expression and personalisation: limited editions and special orders

At Patek Philippe, limited editions are not mere marketing exercises. They are a tradition through which the manufacture celebrates its partners, its privileged clients, or key moments in its history. While this practice is relatively well developed for emblematic models such as the Nautilus or the Calatrava, notably through “double signatures”, it takes on a particular dimension with World Time watches.

Indeed, the World Time complication lends itself naturally to personalisation: the cities disc, a major element of the dial, can be modified to highlight a specific locality, a detail that turns a watch into a unique object full of meaning for whoever wears it. Whether to mark the jubilee of a long-standing retailer, the opening of a new boutique, or a special order for an important client, these editions become highly sought-after collector’s pieces. As early as 1946, Patek Philippe had produced a “special order” watch, an example of the reference 1415 on which one of the cities, Cairo, was inscribed in red to set it apart from the others. It is movement no. 929’690 and case no. 647’126.

When you think about it, opportunities are rare at Patek Philippe to come across unique dials or ones produced in very small series. For collectors, these models therefore represent more than mere variations on a common base – they are pieces of history that tell the story of the brand’s evolution and of its partnerships around the world.

Source: @havanasun on Instagram

The reference 5110 carries over the kind of “personalisation” seen on the 1415 Cairo. The central dial is no different from the standard-production examples; only the city concerned by the special edition is either replaced or highlighted in a specific colour. These discreet alterations are nonetheless noted by Patek Philippe on the Certificates of Origin, as well as on the Extracts from the Archives.

It is only from the later references onwards, the 5130 and 5230, produced in greater numbers, that further variations appear. These include colour changes or alternative patterns on the central disc, or even partial gem-setting of the cities disc.

The 5110 is thus the only reference to sit squarely within the legacy of discreet exclusivity of the personalised World Times. The models that followed, however interesting, would be produced in greater quantities and in more “visible” forms: a coloured central dial, a case-back with a specific inscription, colouring of the cities disc, or even of the 24-hour disc.

Our study of the reference 5110’s special variants: an overview

For the first time, we present a hierarchy of rarity for these variants, based on the number of examples produced and the context of their creation:

The prototype dials – Development pieces

These pieces are technical and aesthetic trials from the late 1990s. These prototype dials are the only ones to feature a flat central disc – as in the 1930s to 1960s – whereas all the series models, on the reference 5110 as well as on the later 5130 and 5230, would be produced with guilloché or enamel dials.

We count 3 pieces of this type, only one of them “black on black”.

The special orders (1 to 5 watches per city)

Certain dealers or important clients were able to order a few personalised Patek Philippe Ref. 5110 watches in very small numbers. This is the case of the models highlighting Buenos Aires (5 examples produced), Toronto (2 known examples), Jerusalem (1 known example), or indeed Doha in platinum, with a cities disc in three-letter codes (1 known example).

These watches, often produced for passionate collectors and loyal clients of a local Patek Philippe retailer, are hidden treasures: their very existence is often poorly documented, which adds to their mystery and their exclusivity. The Certificates of Origin and the Extracts from the Archives note the distinctive feature of the cities disc.

These special orders differ from the limited editions in that the city (or cities) appear in the same colour and typeface as the standard editions (as opposed to red for the limited series). The ultimate discretion in the service of absolute exclusivity!

We count 9 pieces of this type in all, from four special orders.

The limited editions for official retailers (15 to 32 watches per city)

Finally, the limited editions for retailers or an important figure – the Münster, Singapore, Taipei and Doha versions – were produced in small series (15 to 32 examples each). Although more accessible than the unique pieces, they remain extremely sought-after, not least because they are often tied to anniversaries or landmark events for the brand and its partners.

We tally 92 pieces of this kind, spread across four editions.

In total, then, we have studied 104 pieces, of which 88% belong to limited series, 9% come from special orders, and the remainder are the prototype dials.

This figure, very low relative to the total production of the reference 5110, can also be put into perspective: more than 440 pieces were made for this type of limited edition on the reference 5130 (i.e. four times as many); the “Mecca” version alone numbers 150 pieces! Compared with the reference 5230, still in production – and therefore host to a number of limited series that will surely keep growing – the ratio is greater still: 1 to 5 (more than 545 have already been produced as limited editions).

The 5110s are thus by far the rarest, even in limited editions, and the most faithful to the original models of the early 20th century – a quality often recognised in the neo-vintage Patek Philippe pieces of the late 1980s, the 1990s and the early 2000s.

A closer look at the limited series: Münster, Singapore, Taipei

Patek Philippe maintains strong, sometimes even familial, relationships with its retailers around the world. The limited editions for dealers such as The Hour Glass (Singapore), Münster’s Oeding-Erdel (Germany), or King’s Sign Watch Co. (Taiwan) are therefore not merely commercial tributes: they are testaments of loyalty and friendship, giving rise to special, co-developed variants of its most emblematic models.

All of these limited-series models bear the name of the highlighted city inscribed in red.

Münster, Oeding-Erdel (2006) – 32 pieces, 8 per case material

In 2006, Patek Philippe celebrated the 100th anniversary of Oeding-Erdel, one of its long-standing retailers in Germany, with a limited series of 32 examples, split into 8 pieces for each material used.

Located in Münster, in North Rhine-Westphalia, this long-standing dealer of the brand was granted the only limited edition to cover all four possible materials for the 5110 case: yellow gold, white gold, rose gold and platinum.

This series stands out in particular for the presence, on the dial, of Münster in red letters in place of Paris – a fact noted on the Certificate of Origin, alongside the special inscription “Commemorative Timepiece Oeding-Erdel 1906-2006”.

The four variants of the 5110 Münster limited edition. Source: Oeding-Erdel’s 100th-anniversary catalogue

Singapore, The Hour Glass (2004) – 25 platinum pieces (Ref. 5110P-013)

For the 25th anniversary of The Hour Glass (in 2004), one of the largest luxury-watch retailers in the Asia-Pacific region, a limited edition of 25 platinum pieces (Ref. 5110P-013) was produced. This model is a tribute to the relationship of trust between Patek Philippe and this pioneering retailer in the region. Examples from this series are highly sought-after today, particularly in Asia, where The Hour Glass is an essential reference for anyone interested in fine and collectible watchmaking.

This limited series sets itself apart through the presence of Singapore in red letters, in place of the usual Hong Kong.

Source: Patek Philippe Generations on The Hour Glass Official

Taipei, King’s Sign Watch Co. (2005) – 20 platinum pieces (Ref. 5110P-014)

Established in 1923, King’s Sign Watch Co. is one of the leading retailers on the island of Taiwan.

Source: World Wrist Watch

Begun in 1973, the collaboration of more than 30 years with the Plan-les-Ouates manufacture led, in 2005, to the creation of a limited series of 20 platinum pieces – the sub-reference 5110P-014. Taiwan/Taipei takes the place of Hong Kong on the cities disc: a much-coveted slot in the region!

Taiwanese and Asian collectors in general regard it as one of the most desirable Patek Philippe watches.

Sources: Logo: kingsignwatch.com – Photo of the 5110P-014: Christie’s

The story does not end there: in 2023, for the 100th anniversary of this same retailer, a model with a turquoise central disc, limited to 50 pieces, came to life: the reference 5230G-032. We see in this a trend: limited series intended for a particular dealer have, over time, become less and less discreet – through radical changes in dial colour – but also less and less limited, with production runs reaching as high as 150 pieces from the reference 5130 onwards.

A closer look at the special orders: Doha, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Jerusalem

Doha – The yellow-gold series (15 pieces, Ref. 5110J-010)

A yellow-gold version, the sub-reference 5110J-010, was produced at the request of the State of Qatar in 15 examples. These watches were intended to be given as gifts, most likely to foreign diplomats and dignitaries.

Source: Phillips

Although 15 were made, these watches remain particularly rare on the collectors’ market. They do not belong to an edition tied to a particular retailer, but stem from a genuine special order – here placed by a state.

Doha Platinum – The three-letter-code cities disc

This watch, the only one known to the World Time collectors’ community, is a special order from a high-ranking client or authority in Qatar. The watch differs from other models in displaying the cities as three-letter codes, similar to airport codes in international signage (GVA for Geneva, HKG for Hong Kong, and so on). Only the city of “DOHA” is written in red capital letters. This model is all the more interesting in that it blends the codes seen so far: the red of the “star” city, borrowed from the retailers’ limited editions; and strictly unique attributes – the three-letter codes, of course, but also a black diamond set into the caseband at 6 o’clock, where every platinum Patek Philippe usually carries a colourless diamond. A discreet reversal of one of the manufacture’s most recognisable signatures. This watch was sold at auction in 2014, alongside other unique Patek Philippe watches. They were all bought by a Middle Eastern collector well known to the auction houses and the watch community.

Movement no. 3’206’100
Case no. 4’108’767
Produced and sold in 2000.

Source: @simoncsfeir

The Patek Philippe Extract from the Archives explicitly mentions the “DOHA” dial:

Buenos Aires – 5 pieces (Ref. 5110J-013)

The Watch Gallery opened its doors in March 1999. In 2001, the dealer became the exclusive agent for Patek Philippe in Argentina. A notable milestone for Buenos Aires, a city of historic importance in the spread of the World Time complication across Latin America and beyond.

Source: Argentina’s first watches-only store: The Watch Gallery in EuropaStar

In 2004, a visit to the manufacture was organised for the Argentine dealer’s best clients. While the exact details remain confidential, we can say that this visit gave rise to the production of a limited series of 5 pieces, all in yellow gold, delivered two years after the visit to Plan-les-Ouates. For this particular series, the GMT-3 zone hosts, in place of Rio, the Argentine capital Buenos Aires – a first since the end of the 1960s and the last series produced with the involvement of Louis Cottier.

The Certificate of Origin and Guarantee, as well as the Extract from the Archives of each of these 5 pieces, explicitly mention: “Dial: Opaline guilloché, yellow-gold markers, Buenos Aires”.

Source: @amplitude.watches

In September 2006, these 5 pieces left Geneva. After 2 years of waiting, the fortunate collectors received their watch, one of the rarest Patek Philippe Ref. 5110s ever produced, in this salon at The Watch Gallery in Buenos Aires:

The Watch Gallery was ultimately forced to close in 2019 amid a climate of physical and economic insecurity in Argentina. We should not forget that, at the time, Argentina was beset by annual inflation above 50%, a poverty rate of 40%, and growing insecurity of property and persons – all of which resulted in great difficulties for the luxury sector. The 5110J-013 is, in our view, to be considered historic, when one looks at Patek Philippe’s history with this great country:

• The past: Argentina shares with Patek Philippe a bond older than one might guess today, and one intimately tied to the very genesis of the World Time complication. As early as 1937, Walser, Wald y Cía., the house’s agent in Buenos Aires, received the very first known example of the Ref. 605 HU (a pre-series piece, whose movement bears the number 158’947), one of the founding pieces of World Time as conceived by Cottier, now held in the Patek Philippe Museum. Joyería Ricciardi would carry this connection forward from the 1950s, engraving its own numbers on the cases sold in Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, moreover, appears on the cities disc of every vintage Patek Philippe of the Cottier era!
• Contemporary history: there is still, in Argentina, no Patek Philippe dealer at the time of writing. While the presence of Buenos Aires, seen on this series of five watches, is found on no other 5110 nor even 5130, it would reappear discreetly years later, on the 5230 (at the periphery of the disc, and often inscribed “B. Aires”) as well as on its successors.

Source: @minutesdevoyages

Toronto – 2 pieces

Only 2 examples of the 5110P “Toronto” were produced, commissioned around 2000 by a client living in the capital of Ontario. According to the man’s own account, published years later on a watch forum, his request was first turned down by the Toronto retailer, then by the Henri Stern Watch Agency in New York – before Geneva finally agreed to create the requested dial. Their very existence remains poorly documented beyond these few online discussions.

On these models, here are the modifications made compared with standard production:

• New York is replaced by Toronto (Canada);
• Paris is replaced by Holland;
• and Caracas (Venezuela) is replaced by Aruba (an island of the Kingdom of the Netherlands).

“Holland” – a country, not a city – is surprising at first glance. But the three substitutions each respect their time zone (Toronto at GMT-5, Holland at GMT+1, Aruba at GMT-4) and most likely trace the personal geography of the person who commissioned it: home, Dutch origins – “Holland” is the name the diaspora affectionately uses for their country – and Caribbean ties. The World Time disc has, moreover, never been reserved for cities alone: standard production already features the Azores archipelago, the Midway and South Georgia islands, or indeed the US state of Hawaii.

Source: ThePurist forum (WatchProSite)

Jerusalem – 1 known piece

Finally, at least one 5110 “Jerusalem” came into being, probably for a client or a special event in that part of the world. As with Toronto, the details are not well known, but its rarity intrigues collectors the world over.

Source: Christie’s

A closer look at the “Prototype” dials

Three dials inscribed “Prototype” have been identified over the years by the collectors’ community.

These three dials share the trait of being smooth, rather than guilloché like those of standard production.

They were born out of technical and aesthetic trials, to develop and test the first 5110s.

White Prototype dial on a rose-gold watch

This watch, which passed through the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s, has a white central disc inscribed “Prototype”, while the other two elements – the 24-hour disc and the cities disc – come from standard production.

Source: Christie’s

White Prototype dial, monochrome 24-hour disc, on a white-gold watch

This watch was sold at auction by Sotheby’s Geneva in November 2023. It has a white central disc inscribed “Prototype”, an entirely white (monochrome) 24-hour disc, and a cities disc (not fitted in the lot photo) alternating – uniquely – the cities in black and in blue.

Source: Sotheby’s

Black Prototype dial, monochrome 24-hour disc, on a white-gold watch

Finally, another watch presents a unique aesthetic: it now sports a black prototype dial, paired with a 24-hour disc of the same colour. However, unlike the other two – smooth white/opaline – the black dial of this example gives it an aesthetic wholly apart within the production of the reference 5110. To our knowledge, it is the only Ref. 5110 with a black dial ever to have appeared publicly – and, more broadly, the only Patek Philippe World Time (apart from the special 175th Anniversary series) with a smooth black dial, without guilloché work. Guilloché black dials would appear later, notably on the Dubai 5130P-014 and Shanghai 5130G-018 references. This uniqueness is heightened by the fact that the 24-hour disc is also entirely black, monochrome – just like the first 24-hour discs of the 1930s, themselves painted in a single colour.

Source: Watch Spotting: The Monaco Legend Spring 2024 Auction by Hodinkee. This watch now resides in a private collection in Asia

The final word

Twenty years after the end of its production, the reference 5110 occupies a singular – almost paradoxical – position in the world of Patek Philippe World Times. The vintage references produced in collaboration with the watchmaker Louis Cottier, the 1415 and 2523 foremost among them, long ago attained the status of icons, the finest examples of which change hands for several million euros. The contemporary references, for their part, enjoy all the spotlight of the current catalogue. Between the two, the 5110 remains surprisingly understudied – the scarcity of literature on the subject bears witness to this, and it is precisely in that spirit that we are writing this article.

And yet, everything is there. It is indeed the 5110 that reintroduced the World Time to the catalogue after more than three decades of absence; it that inaugurated the calibre 240 HU and its patented pusher at 10 o’clock, which every modern World Time owes to it; it that, with its 37 mm case and its production of just six years, remains the most faithful to the proportions and spirit of the original models. And, as we have seen, its limited editions and special orders – barely more than a hundred pieces – are without equal: never again, at Patek Philippe, will there be personalisations as discreet and confidential.

For the collector, the equation is rare: genuine historical importance, objective rarity, and still-limited market attention. The history of collectible watchmaking has often shown that these three conditions never coexist for very long.

This study is, finally, a living document. Several grey areas remain – the exact references of the Doha, Jerusalem and Toronto pieces, the precise number of certain series, and perhaps even variants whose existence we are still unaware of. If you own, or know of, an example that has escaped this survey, we would be glad to hear from you: this is how this work will keep growing richer.

Contact Amplitude°

The Instagram account @minutesdevoyages is an initiative by Thomas Cardenas dedicated to the historical and technical study of World Time watches.

At the service of all enthusiasts of fine and collectible watches, Amplitude° appraises, buys, restores and sells exceptional pieces from the early 20th century to the present day.

Together, Thomas and Amplitude° appraise, acquire and champion vintage and contemporary World Time watches that they consider especially compelling for collectors the world over.