Do you know the Ellipse d’Or watch from Patek Philippe?

VSs every year at the Watches and Wonders world watch fair in Geneva, all eyes were focused on the new products unveiled by Patek Philippe. For 2024, the house has favored quality over quantity with the release of eleven new models. Among them, we find in particular a new World Time watch equipped with a new function, namely a date indexed to local time; an Aquanaut Travel Time in white gold with an opaline blue-gray dial; the legendary Nautilus automatic flyback chronograph made from the same material and presented in the same color as the Aquanaut Travel Time or, and above all, the return of the iconic Golden Ellipse. In order to fully understand the DNA of this piece which left no one indifferent during the last edition of Watches and Wonders, let’s take a brief look in the rearview mirror.

Crossing watchmaking fashions

A gentleman’s watch. This may be the mantra of the Golden Ellipse, imagined in 1968 by Patek Phillipe, the house’s second collection in order of seniority after the Calatrava (1932). This piece is a lesson in modernist elegance which, even today, has survived more than five decades during which fashions and tastes have evolved. Concretely, the timepiece is characterized above all by its famous flat elliptical-shaped case, at the crossroads of the oval and the rectangle as well as by its refined hands and indexes. Without forgetting a fine bezel, a dazzling cobalt blue dial made in blue gold as well as a movement with manual winding originally then automatic with the famous extra-thin caliber 240 with integrated mini-rotor which equipped the Ellipse d’Or from 1977.

No frills here, simply the beauty and purity of the lines expressed through a minimalist but oh so chic design. The Ellipse is the symbiosis of the sense of balance and symmetry. An underlying classicism for a bold and contemporary aesthetic. His inspiration? The mythical “Golden Ratio” (also known as the Golden Rule or Golden Section). In other words, ” the Golden Rule is an aesthetic principle consecrated by the centuries, a subtle and rigorous relationship of proportions. If it governs the harmony of many human creations, it is present in nature. In the drawing of a tree leaf, in the arrangement of buds on a branch, in the proportions of the human body », detailed a Patek Philippe brochure from the 1970s.

The Ellipse quickly established itself as a flagship watch in the Patek Philippe catalog during the 1970s and 1980s. At the time there were a multitude of different versions for men and women but with a design always faithful to the aesthetic canons of 1968. When a product close to perfection works, why want to improve it? Thus, only new variations have emerged through various sizes and various metals of cases. This, without omitting numerous dial colors, the use of watchmaking crafts on certain references and liveries on several types of leather or metal bracelets such as Milanese, Polish, braided bangles or chains. It is also this last type of bracelet which inspired Patek Philippe for a sparkling return of the Golden Ellipse, a watch more timeless than ever.

More than 300 links assembled manually

In 2008 and on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Ellipse, the collection welcomed an enlarged 34.5 x 39.5 mm model in platinum and adorned with a blue sunburst dial. Ten years later, in 2018, the Ellipse celebrated its golden jubilee with a watch of the same dimensions but with a rose gold case and a black ebony “sun” dial.

The Golden Ellipse unveiled this year is also presented in pink gold on a 34.5 x 39.5 mm case and features the same classic and refined dial color. We find applied “baton” indexes in pink gold, fine “hair” type hands also fashioned from the precious metal as well as a crown set with a black onyx cabochon. Inside, beats the caliber 240 with automatic winding, an extra-thin movement which presents an eccentric mini-rotor in 22-carat gold, thus giving the case an extreme thinness of 5.9 mm, making the Golden Ellipse, the thinnest Patek Philippe watch.

The real innovation of this new Ellipse watch is found on its bracelet with an engraved clasp and three adjustment notches. Indeed, Patek Philippe pays homage to the ancestral know-how of its artisans and specialized suppliers who handcrafted link bracelets with distinctive and avant-garde designs at the end of the 1960s and during the seventies. Thus, chain bracelets, the links of which were produced one by one from a gold wire (or another metal) by chain craftsmen before being assembled manually and forming a large whole. flexibility. A technique reintroduced here exclusively on the Golden Ellipse after 15 years of development. The main challenge of this new bracelet patented by the house lay in correcting the problem of lengthening. Its modern construction made up of more than 300 links assembled and then polished by hand now allows easy adjustments to be made in order to shorten or lengthen the bracelet according to the user’s needs.