- Days after leaked pics lit up social media, Patek Philippe has officially thrown back the curtain on its three-model Cubitus collection.
- The trio of new releases mark the fourth collection of sports watches in Patek’s modern portfolio. However, this is the first to be square-shaped.
- Prices for the new Cubitus collection start from US$41,250.
The last time Patek Philippe released a new line, Star War: Episode I — The Phantom Menace was in cinemas, Cher was dominating the airways, and John Howard had only just begun the second of his four terms as Prime Minister of Australia.
None of this, of course, is particularly relevant. Just my roundabout way of saying: “Ain’t time a bitch?”
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Somewhere along the way, over the past quarter-century, the iconic Genevan watchmaker filed a trademark for the name “Cubitus” — an anatomical term for the elbow — before spending four years developing a design that’d quickly become the intrigue of forums, Reddit threads, and way-too-invested Instagram pages.
Now, Patek’s latest collection has finally launched in all of its square glory, with the brand having confirmed the first three new Cubitus references:
- 5812/1A-001
45mm x 8.3mm x 44.9mm
Time-and-date, stainless steel watch with a green dial
Case-matching bracelet w/ micro-adjust folding clasp - 5812/1AR-001
45mm x 8.3mm x 44.9mm
Time-and-date, stainless steel and rose gold with a blue dial
Case-matching bracelet w/ micro-adjust folding clasp - 5822P-001
45mm x 9.6mm x 44.9mm
Grand date + day + moonphase, platinum with a blue dial
Composite fabric strap w/ folding clasp
“Well, since a long time, I really always wanted to have a square watch in the collection,” said Thierry Stern, President of Patek Philippe.
“It’s not easy, as 85% of the watches around the world are round. And, since I was quite young, I always challenged myself to say, ‘I need to have also a beautiful square watch in the collection.’ So that’s how we started, actually.”
Already, the Cubitus has (almost inevitably) drawn comparisons with the Bell & Ros BR03; sitting on a continuum with the Nautilus and significantly less well-known ‘Nautellipse.’
Throughout its history, Patek’s default design language has favoured the use of curves and gradual symmetries, meaning this is quite a left-of-field aesthetic direction (and intentionally so) for the brand.
The case displays a mixed finish of brushed and polished surfaces.
Under the caseback, the 5812/1A-001 and 5812/1AR-001 house remarkably thin full-rotor automatic 26-330 S C movements with 35-45 hours of power reserve.
The slightly more complicated 5822P-001, on the other hand, is where you’ll find the somewhat pastiche 240 PS CI J LU micro-rotor automatic movement; which is reported to have required 6 years of R&D and filing of multiple patents.
Without getting bogged down in watch nerd minutiae — with talk of tangential brakes, pallet forks, case-to-movement ratios and everything else that spells hospital grade aural melatonin — what makes the latter movement special is that the grand date, day, and moonphase displays all change simultaneously in 18 milliseconds. And, it’s really accurate.
Stern continued: “It took a long time, to be frank, to find such a beautiful piece, because there were many different ways that I could start the design with such a watch. But in my mind, it has to be a thin watch. It has also to be a watch with a new movement. And it has also to be a watch that has really all the DNA of Patek Philippe inside.”
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Public reception has been a tad polarising, to say the least. But whether you care for it or not, there’s no denying it’ll definitely sell — like Audemars Piguet’s initially derided Code 11.59 (which now accounts for over 10% of that brand’s annual global sales).
In terms of pricing, the stainless steel 5812/1A-001 will set you back US$41,250; the two-tone 5812/1AR-001 is priced at US$61,280; while the platinum 5822P-001 demands a heftier US$88,380. Official Australian pricing remains TBC.
Learn more about the Patek Philippe Cubitus below.
