DROP
Patek Philippe's Ref. 5249R Hides the Time, Then Brings a Fable to Life
A single pusher at 2 o'clock wakes the retrograde hours and minutes, and the animated fable on the dial.
Image: Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe’s new 5249R-001, “The Crow and the Fox,” is the first automaton wristwatch in the brand’s contemporary history. The product page puts it bluntly: “Hours and minutes on demand. Automaton.”
That’s the whole idea: no continuously running hours or minutes. The dial is a scene, not a clock, with applied gold fox and crow figures amid hand-engraved foliage on a brown opaline gold plate. At rest, the only sign of life is the small seconds at 6, centered on a diamond and quietly confirming the movement is running.
Press the pusher at 2 o’clock, and one action does both. The retrograde hours and minutes appear, and the automaton scene animates. A single trigger makes this a display philosophy rather than a workaround. Patek also says it developed a patented disengaging clutch system to protect the time-setting mechanism, the sort of detail that hints at how much choreography sits behind one button.
The caliber is the self-winding 31-260 PS HMD AU, 267 parts, with a platinum minirotor and a power reserve running from roughly 38 to 48 hours. The rose gold Officer-style case measures 43 mm.
The lineage runs deep: a 1958 pocket watch prototype, ref. 784, conceived by Louis Cottier and held in the Patek Philippe Museum.
Unusually for Patek, the price is published: $411,388.
| Reference | 5249R-001 |
| Price | $411,388 (published directly on the Patek Philippe product page, pricing is disclosed, contrary to Patek's usual practice of withholding it) |
| Released | Not explicitly stated on the Patek product page. |
| Specs | – Case: Rose gold, "Officer"-style, fully polished. Diameter 43 mm, thickness 11.55 mm. Sapphire crystal caseback with dust cover, invisible hinges. Turban-style crown. Water resistance: 30 m. |
Source: Patek Philippe
Why this watch, on this wrist?