Patek Philippe

As the pinnacle of haute horology, Patek Philippe is dedicated to preserving the ancient techniques and savoir faire of specialists that have been used to decorate timepieces for centuries. The Rare Handcrafts collection was born from the objective to safeguard these ancestral skills for the future by ensuring these fine crafts are practiced and showcased before they reach the brink of extinction. 

A true expression of Patek Philippe’s approach to watchmaking and design, the Golden Ellipse is perhaps the best distillation of this pursuit of perfection. A tribute to the great mathematicians of Ancient Greece, the shape of the Golden Ellipse was derived from the Golden Ratio design principle, also known as the ‘divine proportion’. The Golden Ratio is considered a perfect proportion frequently found in nature, expressed as a ratio between two numbers as approximately 1.618. Studied by mathematicians for centuries the Golden Ratio is considered to be a key element in achieving aesthetic harmony in art and architecture. 

The ‘divine proportions’ of the present Golden Ellipse is combined with Rare Handcrafts featuring a strikingly beautiful dial. The Rare Handcrafts technique demonstrated is the champlevé technique, the consistent and frequent use of which was first seen in early Celtic art and jewelry from the 3rd and 2nd century BC.

The 18K gold dial plate is first hollowed out to form the cavities for the Grand Feu black enamel. The enamel is then applied by hand in the carved recesses and fired in a furnace at over 800°C to melt and adhere to the metal base. The process is repeated over and over until the enamel fills the recesses to the level of the metal left in relief. The gold areas left in relief are then hand-engraved with arabesques and volutes decor. 

Housed under the dial crafted with the same technique of centuries past beats the ultra-thin self-winding caliber 240. Introduced in the midst of the Quartz crisis in 1977 to power the Ellipse collection, it was the thinnest self-winding caliber with an innovative design. Instead of having the rotor be an additional layer above the movement, the rotor is instead housed in the movement itself, positioned off-center in a sunken recess. To compensate for the smaller size of this design, the rotor was crafted in 22k gold with the high karat gold being heavier and more sensitive to the wearer’s movements.

The caliber 240 has stood the test of time and continues to power Patek Philippe’s lineup of watches fifty years after its introduction.