Anticipating a change in watch tastes, Swiss Patek Philippe Replica prophetically released the Golden Ellipse in a move that would hint at the Nautilus, but today the ‘divine proportion’ of the dress watch classic is often overlooked.
Not all vintage dress watches are created equal. Well, that’s not entirely true. Most have historically been created the same, with svelte round cases and silvered or champagne-coloured dials, the kind that most guys have squirrelled away for when they break out the dinner jacket. In the 1960s however, watch tastes were beginning to change.
The beginnings of mass production at this point meant that Cheap Patek Philippe Replica in general were getting cheaper, with the inkling of what we’d today call fashion watch brands offering cheap, but decidedly not cheap-looking timepieces. Mostly though, at least in dress watches, they stuck to that 50s template; round with a silver dial.
The gorgeous curve of the Golden Ellipse is satisfyingly beautiful and matches the 1/1.6181 ratio the ‘divine proportion’ is mathematically expressed as. It’s definitely the most likely of the two theories. However, I prefer the other, that it was taken from an airplane window’s view of an American highway, if only because it ties nicely into the porthole shape of the Nautilus a few years later.
Impressive as the case was however, it was just one part of the original Ellipse’s success. What might at first look like a standard sunray blue dial is far from it. This being Patek’s take on modern luxury, The Best Performing Replica Watches dial was actually made from blue gold. Today blue is a rarity; then it was unheard of.
You get blue gold by plating solid gold with a mix of cobalt and 24K gold, which is easier said than done. You can’t just use an electric bath like gilding a movement. Instead Patek Philippe had to use a cutting-edge technique of vacuum plating. The result was worth it. With simple hour markers, the dial spoke for itself with the surety of a confident orator.
The Replica Swiss Made was an instant success, in part because it was so different from what had come before, in part because this was Patek Philippe, watchmaker to the elite. There was a cache in owning a Patek and a slim, elegant dress piece this eye-catching was always going to be a sure-fire winner.
These days the Ellipse tends to be a bit overlooked. It’s coming back into prominence a little with the resurgence in watchmaking of all things 70s, but most modern buyers still gravitate towards the myriad Calatrava models instead.
Perhaps they’re more confident with the standard circular shape, perhaps it’s simply that the Calatrava is more of a core part of Patek Philippe Replica Watches. It could be something as simple as the small, 34.5mm diameter. Whatever the reason, it makes the Ellipse a more unusual pick of dress watch and one that you can get for a decent price.
