Patek Philippe Cubitus

Patek Philippe presented the long-awaited Cubitus, a collection of “elegant sports” watches. Cubitus is a large square watch with an elegant profile and some echoes of Nautilus. The collection is headed by the flagship Cubitus 5822P Instantaneous Grand Date model made of platinum with a completely new Caliber.

However, the bestseller will be the base model Cubitus 5821/1A, a watch with time and date display in steel with an olive-green dial. Cubitus 5821/1AR is a three—shot watch with date display, but in two-tone steel and rose gold with a blue dial.

It is important that Cubitus has good ergonomics. The case has a diagonal of 45 mm (all three new models have the same diameter). Cubitus is impressively thin. Even with triple instant calendar displays, the 5822P-001 is only 9.6mm thick, while the 5821 is only 8.3mm thick. The case sits slim and elegant on the wrist and is actually slightly thinner than the Nautilus 5711 or 5811, creating the visual illusion of a wide diameter.

The brand’s first new collection since Twenty-4 in 1999, Cubitus fulfills Mr. Stern’s long-held ambition of a square watch. According to Mr. Stern, Patek Philippe has a rich history of watches with shapes ranging from oval to rectangular, but square cases are relatively rare.

Based on the premise of the square body, Cubitus — this name, coined by Mr. Stern, does not mean anything specific – was developed for four years, plus two more years for the 240 PS CI J LU caliber. According to Mr. Stern, many designs were proposed, but this one, with hints of Nautilus, was his aesthetic ideal. And, Cubitus was supposed to be thin.

The fit and finish of the Cubitus are similar to current Patek Philippe offerings, meaning the exterior components are highly detailed, while the mechanism is an industrial haute horlogerie.

In profile Cubitus demonstrates a design identical to that of Nautilus. The bezel is mounted on a solid body in the middle, with side screws located in the “lugs” that attach the bezel to the body. This means that the mechanism and dial are installed in the case from the front, before the bezel is attached. This also makes the case relatively thinner, as well as waterproof.

Apart from the watch design, the Cubitus collection also shows amazing attention to detail. For example, the mechanisms have a stamped linear motif on the rotor, which reflects the dial. The rotor decoration is a modest addition, but it is unique in the Patek Philippe catalog. Apart from some Grand Complication models, Cubitus is the only collection with its own mechanism decoration.

Cubitus also stands out for its packaging. All models come in a square box covered with blue fabric, which is unique to the collection (the shape of the box resembles a Nautilus cork box). Since the case is platinum, a tiny diamond is set on the bezel at around six o’clock, as is customary with Patek Philippe, but instead of a diamond-cut stone, for the first time, a diamond has a baguette cut.

The basis of the mechanism is the Caliber 240, a long-standing Patek Philippe micro-rotary caliber that will turn 50 next year. But the calendar mechanism — integrated, not modular — has been developed recently and is made in the typical Patek Philippe style, characterized by sophisticated engineering that emphasizes subtlety and reliability. The calendar is triple instantaneous — the date, day of the week, and moon phase change instantly at midnight, in 0.018 seconds to be exact. The instantaneous jump at midnight occurs with an audible, clear click.

According to Philippe Barat, director of product development at Patek Philippe, the instant display has become a natural consequence of striving for maximum subtlety. The same set of calendar displays would lead to a thicker mechanism if they were designed as ordinary “draggable” indicators.

Although calendar displays are simple, the instantaneous design is complex and integrated into the base plate rather than being a module. About 200 calendar parts were added to the basic 240 Caliber movement, which more than doubled the total number of parts to 353.

Kalibr boasts six patents, including a “tangential brake” that prevents date discs from jumping twice from “31” to “01”. On the 31st of the month, only disc 10 jumps, while “1” remains stationary. However, the energy supplied to the date mechanism is used to move two discs, so a brake is needed to avoid a double jump.

The Cubitus 5821 runs on a caliber of 26-330 S C, which is also used in Calatrava and Nautilus. It is a fully rotary automatic movement with three hands and a date. Because it is mechanically simple, the 5821 is a slim watch. It’s only 8.3mm thick, and it seems even thinner because of its large diameter.

The dial has a stamped horizontal motif, similar to the one on Nautilus, with 18-carat gold indexes. The hands are also made of solid gold, as is the date frame.

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