Patek Philippe Ref. 5101R 10-Day Tourbillon Watch

Most of the time when a watchmaker creates a timepiece with a tourbillon complication in the movement, the tourbillon is literally the centerpiece of the dial, with everything swimming around it. Why? Because the major allure of the expensive complications is watching them operate. The concept behind the tourbillon (or spinning balance wheel) is that it helps improve the rate of watches - but for the most part it really doesn't. Thus, for a consumer to go to the expensive of buying a tourbillon movement based watch means that he or she is going to want to visually see their investment all the time.

Patek Philippe is going just the opposite of this with the new Ref. 5101R 10-Day Tourbillon movement. Really "stealth wealth" here, the amazing manually wound caliber 28-20/222 mechanical tourbillon based movement has a power reserve of 10 full days, with a corresponding indicator on the front of the watch. However, the viewable tourbillon on the face of the watch is totally absent! Instead, you'll have to flip the watch over to the transparent sapphire crystal caseback to check out your investment operating. This is the first watch for Patek Philippe with 10-days of power (in two barrels) and a tourbillon movement. All you get on the dial of the watch in reference to this is a simple reminder in the subsidiary seconds dial that a "Tourbillon" is laying right beneath it.

The 51.7mm x 29.6mm rectangular case is made of 18k rose gold, with corresponding hands and Arabic hour markers (Breguet style) on the face. Attached to the art deco inspired case are brown crocodile straps. A lovely looking Patek Philippe watch with its true value hiding under the hood. Well over $100k.

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.