Patek Philippe and world time watches are practically synonymous. The Swiss luxury watchmaker didn’t invent the complication, but ever since 1937, when it commissioned talented watchmaker Louis Cottier to produce a world time watch, the marque and this particular complication have been entwined. So, it is fitting that Patek Philippe should be the brand to unveil its latest evolution – a world time with instant change date.

Cottier’s original design was simple. Local time on a centre dial, with the hour hand linked to a rotating inner ring so that, as the hour hand completed its 12-hour cycle, the inner ring would run counter clockwise over 24 hours. An outer chapter ring displayed the 24 major cities and was set by adjusting the ring until the local city was at 12 o’clock. Once the local city was set, the hours and minutes and whether it was day or night would all align. Technically useless to all but a few, given this was way before the era of commercialised travel, but beautiful and elegant, nonetheless.

Cottier’s design has remained relatively unchanged over the years. Cottier himself improved his design in 1953 by adding a second crown to adjust the 24-hour ring, giving rise to such innovations as Patek Philippe’s own jump-hour pusher. Then in 1999, Patek Philippe designed a patented mechanism that allowed a single pusher to adjust all displays – city disc, 24-hour disc and centre hour hand – together in one-hour increments without affecting the accuracy of the minute and seconds. And now we have its latest invention – a world time with date.

Those five words don’t really pack much of a horological punch until it’s explained that this date is linked to the local time and instantaneously changes when you reset your watch. This also sounds pretty pedestrian until you factor in the international date line. Located halfway around the world from the prime meridian, when crossing it the displayed date can either stay the same or go backwards when the local city is reset to 12 o’clock on arrival. In a traditional set-up, two contradictory pieces of information – set date forward, set date back – would be sent to the same date star wheel, blocking the movement. Thanks to a patented differential mechanism these two pieces of information are processed in parallel, keeping the date hand static until the local city is changed and the date can either remain the same or, if the international date line has been crossed, go back a day – a function that is managed thanks to a second finger that can hook the wheel backwards. All this has been engineered while maintaining the monopusher, thanks to the coupling of the date and local time. It’s a remarkable feat of mechanics that barely adds anything to the already slim 11mm case.

The other element that has had a facelift is the aesthetics. The refined guilloche has been replaced with stamped racetrack starting-line chequerboard and the strap is leather that has been made to look like denim. The effect is rather like when Ryan Gosling made over schlubby, newly separated dad Steve Carell in 2011 romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love. It’s not age inappropriate but just brings the look up to date and makes it lose some of its seriousness.

In the world of complications, a world time still remains unnecessary except for a privileged few. However, it retains its desirability because it acts as both a showcase for horological prowess and a thing of watchmaking whimsy. With a timepiece such as this you can wear the whole world on your wrist, even if you don’t have the time to travel it.

£65,600; patek.com