A Prestigious way to tell the time

With a new design with unprecedented adornments and dressed with diamonds, Patek Philippe includes the Gondolo in its collection of “shaped” watches, a new feminine model with a surprising design and sophisticated construction.

Designed in white gold, it bears inset diamonds, not on the case, but underneath the sapphire crystal, surrounding the bezel, evoking the terraces of a stadium. This unprecedented dressing of diamonds is not the only element that makes the new Gondolo an emblematic model of watch making design. The elegant curve of the “tonneau” case is highlighted in its profile with an original braided motif that will capture all the feminine gazes.

The intertwined relief of the case, all carefully worked, is not engraved or turned, but stamped on the profile of the edge based on a block of white gold using cold stamping.

The time is kept by two white gold hands on a “champagne” color dial decorated on both sides with a “guilloché soleil” motif. The dial features two large numbers at 12 and 6 o’clock applied in 18-carat white gold, as well as a small date window at 3 o’clock edged with two rows of thirteen Top Wesselton Pur diamonds.

The decoration of diamonds is extended in the 18-carat white gold crown set with 14 diamonds and accompanied by a chocolate-colored satin strap, with an 18-carat white gold clasp.

 

 

The high precision of the Gondolo is guaranteed by the Patek Philippe Calibre E19 C quartz mechanism with a battery life of a minimum of 2 years. Developed by Patek Philippe, it features a mechanism  manufactured to the same aesthetic and quality criteria of the mechanical mechanisms of manufacturing. It consists of eighty pieces, seven of which are rubies and a miniscule “step-by-step” motor.

 

Gondolo Chronometer

Patek Philippe causes a sensation by launching a watch that stands out for its style and for its name surrounded by legend: the Gondolo Chronometer. Eighty years following the delivery of the latest historic model in 1927, this mythical collection returns to jump into the present.

A faithful replica of the 1925 model, the rolled gold dial is a small masterpiece of refinement that takes on a slightly narrower form at the lugs. Its center, as well as the outside surface of the “chemin de fer”-type minute circle bears a manual “guilloché” engraving, which is a disappearing craft technique that Patek Philippe contributes to preserving by endowing this ancestral knowledge to its new products. The oval-shaped minute circle is adorned with black-lacquered Breguet digits, while the 12 and 6 o’clock positions bear the “Patek Philippe Geneve” and “Gondolo Chronometer” motifs written in two curved “cartouches”. The dial has two “pear” shaped hands made of black oxidized gold.

Nowadays, all the Patek Philippe “form” watches are grouped in the “Gondolo” collection. Toward the end of the “crazy years”, the world economic panorama started to deteriorate and the last Gondolo Chronometer send to Río de Janeiro dates from 1927. Now, following a parenthesis of 80 years, this historical line returns with a vengeance. 

 

 

Text: Rafael Luna Grajeda ± Photo: Cortesía de Patek Philippe.