Description
If the creation of the Nautilus represents one of the turning points in Patek Philippe’s history, the birth of the Golden Ellipse is, for collectors, an equally essential moment in the evolution of the Geneva Maison’s collections. The watch debuted in 1968, a year of major social change that would soon bring radical shifts to the watch industry with the arrival of low-cost quartz, the restructuring of production methods, and soaring gold prices.
At the time of its launch at the Basel Fair that year, these developments were still on the horizon. Patek Philippe—with designer Jean-Daniel Rubel at the helm—reimagined the luxury wristwatch by introducing an elliptical case at a time when round shapes dominated. Fine craftsmanship, refined new materials, and a redefined aesthetic turned the Golden Ellipse into a success story and transformed it into a classic. Its design drew inspiration from the principle of the “golden ratio,” discovered by ancient Greek mathematicians—the so-called divine proportion, expressed as 1/1.6181—behind some of the greatest artistic and architectural masterpieces in history.
The Golden Ellipse presented here is a yellow-gold Ref. 3634 from 1977, capturing the spirit of the 1970s in its most elegant form. From 1971 into the early 1980s, it was one of the largest Ellipse wristwatches ever produced by Patek Philippe. Unlike the Ref. 3605, the Ref. 3634 does not feature a date display. Its distinctive stepped case was crafted by the renowned case maker Favres-Perret—the same workshop responsible for the Nautilus case.
The Ref. 3634 was among the first Ellipse models to use the automatic Caliber 28-255C, which would later power the Nautilus Ref. 3700/1. The example offered here is fitted with a Patek Philippe alligator strap secured by a yellow-gold Ellipse buckle. The watch comes as a full set.