The balance was just really off. The reason for that was, as mentioned above, the caliber was introduced in 1974. But to be clear, this caliber made a lot of sense for a long time. I think the very best use of the caliber 215 was in the ultimate banker’s watch, the 3919. There is something very chic about the 3919, in all of its late 80s, 33mm, hob-nail-y charm. It was introduced in 1985, so, you know, it worked. But by the time Hodinkee came around and we were going hard at the details of every watch, some 35 years later, the caliber 215 just didn’t cut it anymore when you had people like VC, Journe, and Lange really investing in beautiful, hand-wound calibers made in this era.
The caliber 215 is 22m in diameter, 2.5mm thick, has 130 parts, 18 jewels, vibrates at 28,800 (4 Hz), and a power reserve of 44 hours. This is what was used in the 5196 in all metals, and though that reference has been out of the catalog for some years now, the 215 is, believe it or not, still used in four watches from Patek Philippe today: this, these, and this. Max case size of the watches Patek uses this caliber in now? 31 by 34mm in diameter, so it’s quite clear that they knew the 215 was best used in smaller cases.