RGM Model 501-PC “Perpetual Calendar”
The RGM Model 501-PC Perpetual Calendar is a watch we have wanted to make for many years.
It marks an important return for RGM, being our first perpetual calendar since the Model 103-R Minute Repeater Perpetual of the late 1990s. For me, bringing a perpetual calendar back into the RGM collection has always been something I wanted to accomplish. It is a complicated and demanding form of watchmaking, but it is also one that represents so much of what I value about traditional horology.
The design is unmistakably RGM—classical in character, restrained in its proportions, and rooted in the traditions of watchmaking. The fired enamel dial is inspired by perpetual calendar pocket watches from the late 1890s, a period when complicated watches were made with a wonderful combination of technical ingenuity and elegance.
Paired with blued steel hands, the enamel dial takes on an especially distinctive character. The deep blue of the hands against the white enamel recalls the old-world craftsmanship of fine pocket watches, where every detail was considered not only for its function, but for its beauty as well.
I have always felt that a good watch should have a sense of permanence to it. It should not look as though it belongs to only one particular moment in time. With the 501-PC, we wanted to create something that could have been appreciated generations ago, while still being unmistakably an RGM watch made today.
The combination of the fired enamel dial, blued steel hands, classical design, and perpetual calendar gives the watch a quiet presence. There is beauty in the simplicity of the design, but also a great deal of watchmaking beneath it.
For us, the 501-PC is not simply a new model. It is a continuation of an idea that has been part of our work for decades: to look to the great traditions of watchmaking for inspiration, and then interpret those traditions through our own hands and our own time.
The result is a watch deeply connected to the past, made for the present, and intended to endure well into the future.
The RGM Model 501-PC is, in many ways, exactly the kind of watch we have always wanted to make.
Movement Caliber: RGM-ETA 2892-A2 - Swiss Automatic modified by RGM with custom DD Perpetual Calendar, RGM Solid gold winding rotor, and automatic winding system; 21 jewels, 28,800 vph. Rhodium finish - Côte de Genève lines and perlage. 52 to 56-hour power reserve.
Functions: Hour / Minute / Second / Date on some models
Case: American-made 316L Stainless Steel, 39 mm x 11.5 mm over crystal, sapphire crystal; front is a raised box style, 20mm lug width, and water-resistant to 5-ATM. Case length from lug end to lug end: 48mm.
Weight: 2.5 oz. in stainless steel
