The ladies' collection Patek Philippe Aquanaut Luce welcomes jewelry minute repeaters.
Ladies' watches that house mechanical movements used to be considered an oddity in a niche dominated by quartz, but there's nothing surprising about them today. It's hard to believe the Ladies’ Complication category was only added to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) a decade ago.
Watchmakers now recognize women's right to enjoy complicated movements, and have been happy to respond to the demand from discerning consumers. But that doesn't mean we have to abandon the gem-set jewelry watch style.
At least that was the strategy for Patek Phillip's novelty this fall: the Aquanaut Luce minute repeater (Ref.5260/355R-001 on an integrated strap made of composite material, and Ref. 5260/1455R-001 on a bracelet).
Patek Phillip Aquanaut Luce Ref. 5260/1455R-001
The watch builds on the theme of last year's Aquanaut Luce "Rainbow" Ref. 7968/300Р-001, which had two rows of gems on the bezel: one row of clear diamonds and another row of colored sapphires.
The rows have swapped places this year, and the new piece has the sapphires on the inner row, closer to the dial. The transition of tones on the bezel is mirrored by the 12 hour markers, where multicolored sapphires have also been used.
The embossed pattern on the 2022 dial engraved with Aquanaut motif has been replaced by a paving of baguette-cut diamonds. An "invisible setting" technique has been used on the dial to delight fans of this diamond "brickwork", while snow setting has been used for the hour ring.
Rainbow dial configurations now seem to be reserved for innovation. The Aquanaut Luce for 2022 was Patek Philippe's first automatic chronograph for her, while this year's model is the first self-winding ladies' Aquanaut Luce with a minute repeater.
The watch houses caliber R 27 with two classic gongs. The minute repeater can be activated on demand using the lever on the side of the case.
The case for the novelty is made of rose gold, and its universal size also makes the watch perfectly suitable wristwear for him: 38.8 mm × 10.1 mm.
When viewed alongside the bracelet edition Ref. 5260/1455R-001, Ref.5260/355R-001 looks low-key. That's because the bracelet is also set with precious stones.
It's fully paved with multicolored baguette-cut sapphires (a total of 650 gems are used on the bracelet alone). A total of 779 multicolored sapphires have been used to decorate the piece (45.05 ct), along with 131 diamonds (8.67 ct).