Okay, so today I decided to remake the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5088/100P-001, you know, the one you see in their official flagship store. Man, it was quite the adventure. I started by just staring at pictures of this thing for hours. It’s a beautiful watch, with all those fancy engravings and the sleek black dial.
First, I tried to get my head around the design. I needed to find similar patterns online. I browsed through tons of design websites and forums, looking for anything that resembled the engravings on the watch. It took a while, but I finally found some patterns that were close enough. I printed those out to use as a guide.
- Looked up the watch online.
- Found similar patterns for the engravings.
- Printed out the patterns.
Then, I had to figure out the materials. I mean, I’m not using platinum like the real one, so I opted for some stainless steel sheets I had lying around. I cut out a circle, roughly 38mm in diameter, just like the real Calatrava. I used my trusty old rotary tool for this. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the edges.
Next up was the engraving part. This was the hardest part, to be honest. I used a fine-tipped engraving tool and tried to copy the patterns I printed. It was painstaking work. My hands were cramping, and I had to take breaks every few minutes. But I kept at it, slowly and steadily. After hours of work, the engraving started to look decent. It wasn’t perfect, but it had that hand-engraved vibe.
After that, I needed a dial. I used a thin piece of black plastic and cut it to fit inside the steel case. I tried to make it as smooth as possible. This was way easier than the engraving, thank goodness. I painted it with some glossy black paint I found in my garage. It looked pretty good, not gonna lie.
For the movement, I knew I couldn’t replicate the Caliber 240, so I just took apart an old quartz watch and used its movement. I attached it to the back of the dial. It’s not a self-winding mechanical movement, but hey, it tells the time.
Putting it all together
Finally, I assembled everything. I glued the dial to the movement and then fixed that inside the engraved steel case. I used a cheap leather strap I bought online a while back. And there it was, my homemade Patek Philippe Calatrava. It didn’t cost me $105,820 or even $83,837, more like $10 bucks and a lot of hours. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.
It’s not the real deal, obviously, but it looks pretty cool. It was a fun project, and I learned a lot. Maybe I’ll try another watch next time. I found some information saying that the Calatrava model was first launched in 1932. I wonder how it looked back then. Might be an interesting project to recreate an older model. Who knows. I just think that If you got the money and you want a fancy watch, just go for it.
This whole experience taught me that you can make some awesome stuff with just a bit of creativity and a lot of patience. It’s not about the price tag; it’s about the journey and what you learn along the way.
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