The aesthetic design left something to be desired (in my opinion). The Calatrava-style case is an obvious callback to the early ref. 96 calendars, and the dial now features an aperture at 12 o’clock to display where you are on the leap year cycle. However, the brand included a central seconds display that feels superfluous and cluttering, and wrote the word “automatic” on the dial (which seems more in service of marketing than design).
Probably the most desirable versions are those with unusual colored dials or eschewing Roman numerals for baton indices or, in rare cases, Breguet numerals. In 1998, a similar version, the ref. 5059, was released, with scrawl lugs and an officer’s caseback. The lug choice, especially, made the watch feel anachronistic. The ref. 5050 had a nine-year run and was discontinued in 2002, while the ref. 5059 ran until 2007. The ref. 5159 and ref. 5160 would eventually follow.