So, I’ve been wanting to remake a Patek Philippe Calatrava 6119G-001 for a while now. It’s a real beauty, and I figured, why not give it a shot? I mean, the real deal goes for around $33,000, and let’s be honest, that’s a bit out of my price range right now. I started by gathering all the information I could find about this watch. I looked at pictures, read articles, and even tried to find some videos of people taking it apart, though those were hard to come by.
First things first: I needed to find a decent base watch. Something with a similar size and shape, since I wasn’t about to make a watch case from scratch. After searching online, I managed to find a used watch with a 39mm white gold-plated case that looked pretty close to the Calatrava. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good starting point.
Next up was the dial. The 6119G has this really distinctive grey dial with a “Clous de Paris” hobnail pattern. I tried to find a pre-made dial that looked similar, but no luck. So, I decided to try and make my own. I found some thin metal sheets online, bought a few different shades of grey paint, and got to work. It was a lot of trial and error, let me tell you. I used a tiny screwdriver to try to engrave the hobnail pattern, and that was a real pain. It took me several tries to get something that looked even remotely decent, then a lot of delicate paint to make it perfect.
- Sourcing the base watch: This took a couple of weeks of online searching, and comparing specs.
- Making the dial: Easily the most time-consuming part, requiring multiple attempts and a lot of patience.
- Painting the dial: Finding the right shade of grey and applying it evenly was another challenge.
The hands were another hurdle. The Calatrava has these elegant, thin hands that are pretty unique. I searched for similar-looking hands, but again, nothing quite matched. I ended up buying a set of hands that were close enough and carefully filed them down to make them thinner and more like the originals. It was delicate work, and I nearly ruined a few hands in the process.
Then came the movement. Obviously, I couldn’t replicate the Patek Philippe movement. It is so complicated, I just don’t have the tools. I opted for a simple, reliable automatic movement that I found online. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it kept time well and fit inside the case. Fitting the movement into the case and attaching the dial and hands was nerve-wracking, to say the least. One slip, and I could have damaged the whole thing. But with a lot of patience and a steady hand, I managed to get it all assembled.
Final Touches
Finally, I needed a strap. The original comes with a black leather strap, but I found a really nice red one online that I thought would give it a unique look. I attached the strap, gave the watch a good polish, and that was it. My very own, hand-made, somewhat-like-a-Patek Philippe Calatrava 6119G-001. It’s not perfect, of course. There are definitely some imperfections if you look closely. But I’m really proud of it. It was a lot of work, but it was also a really fun and rewarding project. It is not a PP, but looks like a PP.
This whole thing took me a few months, working on it on and off in my spare time. It wasn’t easy, but it was a great learning experience. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll actually be able to afford the real thing!
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