Patek Philippe has made seven limited editions for its Milan exhibition, which opens on Friday 2 October. Together they come to 685 watches. They range from an Aquanaut in steel to two minute repeaters with world time, five of each, whose cloisonné enamel dials show the centre of Milan, one by day and one by night. The house presents them as a tribute to its host country, and three of them carry the colours of the flag, green, white and red. According to the watch press, the seven are reserved for Italy, in line with what Thierry Stern said in May about special editions “dedicated exclusively to the Italian market”. But one of the seven matters beyond the occasion: for the first time, Patek has combined its manually wound chronograph with an instantaneous perpetual calendar, in a new movement of 500 components.
Milan in enamel, by day and by night
The two enamel watches are references 5531G-012 and 5531G-013, each in a five-piece edition. Both are minute repeaters with world time in white gold, 40.2 millimetres across, with a hand-guilloched hobnail pattern on the caseband and skeletonised lugs. On the first, Patek writes, “its cloisonné Grand Feu enamel dial depicts the city center of Lombardy’s capital by day”, with the city names in Italian and Milan in red. The second shows the same streets at night. Its white gold hands are skeletonised in a constellation motif. Both carry the self-winding R 27 HU calibre, with 452 parts and a repeater that strikes on two classic gongs, and interchangeable solid and sapphire casebacks inscribed “Patek Philippe Milano 2026”. Ten watches in all.
A first for the chronograph
The technical news is reference 5978P-010, a 120-piece edition in platinum. “To mark the WATCH ART Grand Exhibition – Milan 2026, the Manufacture is combining for the first time its manually wound chronograph movement with an instantaneous perpetual calendar, giving rise to the new 500-component CH 29-535 PS QI caliber,” the product page says. The case is 42 millimetres across and 14.24 millimetres thick, with a concave bezel, scalloped lugs and a diamond at six o’clock. The dial is sunburst blue with a black gradient rim, the calendar indications are in Italian, the chronograph hands are varnished red and the navy strap has red stitching. Patek calls it sporty. Wallpaper notes that the exhibition marks 85 years since Patek first united a perpetual calendar and a chronograph in a wristwatch.
“I think to keep it fresh, you’re always trying to innovate a little bit. Not only the product, but the philosophy of the brand.” Thierry Stern, president of Patek Philippe, to Wallpaper, 1 October 2026.
Green, white and red
Three watches make the flag together. Reference 7147G-010, a perpetual calendar in white gold, 38 millimetres, has a green lacquered dial with a “carbon” pattern at the centre and the calibre 240 Q, 3.88 millimetres thick, in 100 pieces. Reference 7007G-010, a Calatrava, has a white lacquered dial with the same centre, in 200 pieces. Reference 7047G-010, a minute repeater with the self-winding R 27 PS calibre and a 22-carat gold guilloché mini-rotor, has a red lacquered dial and a red alligator strap, in five pieces. The seventh watch is the most accessible: reference 5167A-014, an Aquanaut in steel, 40.8 millimetres, with a sunburst blue dial and red touches on the minute track, in 250 pieces.
Rare Handcrafts for Italy
Alongside the editions, Patek is unveiling a collection of Rare Handcrafts pieces “reflecting themes inspired by Italian culture”. Patek has not yet published the full list. Wallpaper describes one of them as part of a 25-piece series of site-specific editions celebrating Italy’s regions. Two unique pieces have been shown already, the Burano pocket watch and the Sicilian Oranges dome table clock, both in enamel, as we described in our guide to the exhibition. The show itself, at CityOval in the CityLife district until 18 October, gathers some 500 timepieces and objects; Wallpaper counts 15 themed areas and a nine-metre recreation of Geneva’s Jet d’Eau made of 2,028 glass droplets.
Seven editions, one more than Tokyo
Limited editions have become part of the Grand Exhibitions. Tokyo in 2023 brought six of them and 40 limited Rare Handcrafts pieces, according to Patek’s own record of the series, and Milan adds one more edition. The number matters less than the range. With a steel Aquanaut at one end and five-piece repeaters at the other, the series speaks to very different collectors, and the Italian dials, names and colours tie each watch to the place. Thierry Stern told Wallpaper that one of his father’s most important tasks was to rebuild the history of Patek Philippe. The exhibitions take that history to people who cannot come to Geneva. “They like to see, they like to touch, you know, so you have to really give them this,” he said.
The Luxury.it perspective
Commemorative watches are usually about a date. These are about a city, and the best of them put Milan on the dial itself, in enamel, by day and by night, five times each. That is the poetry of the series. The engineering is in the platinum 5978P, a chronograph and an instantaneous perpetual calendar in one manually wound movement, made for the first time, in 120 pieces. For collectors in Italy, the question will be allocation. For everyone else, the exhibition is free until 18 October, with reservations recommended, and it is the place to see why a Geneva house has given one of its rarest complications a portrait of Milan.
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