Smith recalls a bit of wisdom the industry leader, who died last week, shared at a diamond conference years ago.
5 New Watches from Patek Philippe
This year, the brand known for understated elegance marks the 20th anniversary of the Aquanaut and the 40th anniversary of its ultra-slim movement, the Caliber 214.

Basel, Switzerland--Watch brands are never short on anniversaries to celebrate.
If it’s not the entire company marking a milestone--Patek Philippe, for example, marked 175 years in 2014 with the introduction of the 20-complication Grandmaster Chime--then it’s the anniversary of a collection, movement or dial design.
For Patek Philippe this year, there are two anniversaries: the Aquanaut turns 20, with a new model entering the collection, and the automatic, slim Caliber 214 movement turns 40.
The new 42.2 mm Aquanaut has a white gold case and, like a number of other Patek Philippe introductions this year, has a blue strap and dial (approximately $34,348). It’s powered by the Ref. 5186 movement.
Meanwhile, the extra-thin Caliber 214 originally debuted in 1977 in the middle of the “quartz crisis” when the company felt that it needed to introduce an ultra-thin automatic movement in order to compete with quartz.
New models that feature the Caliber 214 include the Calatrava Ref. 6006 with off-center small seconds between 4 and 5 (approximately $27,276), and a ladies’ Calatrava Ref. 4899 high jewelry watch with a dial featuring natural pink mother-of-pearl from Mississippi (approximately $90,920).
Also new from Patek Philippe is a new perpetual calendar with a 40 mm white gold case and a new movement, the self-winding 5320 (approximately $73,746).

The watch has day, month, leap year and day/night indication apertures, date by hand and moon phases, as well as interchangeable full and sapphire-crystal case backs.
Patek Philippe introduced a total of 25 new models at Baselworld 2017, 17 men’s watches and eight women’s models.
The brand also presented its largest ever collection of rare, handcrafted timepieces.

Among the introductions were two limited-edition 27.5 mm white gold Calatrava “Azulejos” watches powered by the extra-thin Caliber 214 movement.
Azulejos are the ceramic tiles found throughout Portugal that are assembled in a mosaic-like fashion in order to create large-scale murals.
For this two limited-edition Calatrava Azulejos, Patek Philippe’s artisans hand-painted two tiny scenes on genuine enamel dials, one of a porter and one of a barge.
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