Patek Philippe released a range of new references this year at Watches & Wonders, including a set of 4 watches in what they are calling ?highly contemporary Vintage Style?. The new watches are split into 2 groups, with the 5326G and 5226G occupying one end, and the 5320G and 5172G the other. The latter getting traditional rose-gilt opaline dials, with the former taking a slightly more unexpected route, with heavy texture and beige lume. It?s a look we?ve seen plenty of in recent years, but never from a brand like Patek Philippe. 

Before we go further, I?ll stop to acknowledge a new colorway of the vaunted reference 5270, which now boasts a deep green fume dial with white accents in a platinum case. This is modern Patek at its finest (if you ask me), brought on trend with a green dial (mercifully, no Tiffany blue variant in sight). It?s beautiful, it?s expensive, and it?s fabulous.
There are more executions of that salmon/black colorway with the 5320G and 5172G, which both get the rose-gilt opaline treatment with charcoal gray gold applied to the hands and indices. It looks good, and it?s quite legible to boot, so it?s a win-win. The 5320 is a perpetual calendar that places the day and month within apertures at 12 o?clock, with the date read around a moonphase complication at 6 o?clock, flanked by a day/night and leap year indications on either side. All this, placed within a 40mm white gold case that measures just 11.1mm thick. 

The 5172 uses the same colo...