It all started with a name and an intention. Says Thierry Stern, the President of Patek Philippe, “I had known for some time that I wanted to add a square watch to our offer. Eighty-five percent of watches are round and I saw a gap for a watch that was missing from our lineup… One of the first things that came to me was the name ‘Cubitus.’ I liked that it was easy to pronounce and understandable in every language.” While the name of the new square case with beveled edges was easy to arrive at, the fundamental design language of the watch took longer. After two years of different concepts, the model began to bear a strong spiritual similarity with another Patek Philippe icon, the Nautilus.

Says Stern, “To make a sibling for the Nautilus was not the original idea. But [for] the first two years, each time we created something, I felt that the design was not enough. The case was not complex enough. The concept of the watch was not exciting enough. Then we started to work on a sports chic design with an integrated bracelet. This type of watch is important to me. People sometimes think it has just been the trend of the last few years. But to me it’s more than that. I think in the last few years, the way we dress has evolved in a very fundamental way.”

Seated in Patek Philippe’s sun-filled meeting room at its Munich headquarters, Stern gestures to himself and his son Adrien who is seated behind him, “Five years ago, we would all be wearing neckties. Today there is a softening of dress codes and we are wearing open-collared shirts and even sneakers. The urban environment has generated a new type of formality and the integrated bracelet sports chic watch is the timepiece most suited to this.” It is for this reason that for the launch party of the Cubitus, Stern proposed an “urban chic” dress code. When asked about this, he replies with a smile, “It’s up to you to interpret this. That’s the beauty of today.”

The New Shape of Sports Chic

So, what are my initial impressions of the Cubitus? To me, it feels almost like when Gérald Genta proposed the Nautilus to Patek Philippe, there was an alternate design in his portfolio, which had caught the Sterns’ attention and which they had put inside a drawer until almost 50 years later.

Because the Cubitus is very Nautilus-esque. It features a similar two-part case with “ears.” These two parts are attached using four vertical screws just like the Nautilus. The dials feature the same horizontal embossing, the same sunray finish, the same subtle fumé effect as the Nautilus. The integrated bracelet design is also extremely close to the Nautilus. And even the movements inside the new watches, the Caliber 26-330 in the time and date Reference 5821, and the base Caliber 240 of the very cool big date version, Reference 5822, are the same as the movements found in the Nautilus References 5811 and 5712, respectively. Yet at the same time, the Cubitus is very much its own thing.

First, it is definitely not a retro themed watch. Its size alone at 45mm across all references places it irrefutably in the modern world. Second, there is something about the strong linear expression of the case and bezel, the sharp mirror-polished linear angles contrasted by the strong vertical brushing, that makes it altogether more aggressive than the Nautilus. It is a punchy watch with a very bold, brazen personality — a kind of irreverent, tattooed, motorcycle riding, long-haired version of the more gentile Ivy League-educated Nautilus.

This decidedly bad boy appeal is, however, balanced by the elegant slimness of both models, 8.6mm for the 5821 and 9.6mm for the 5822 and, of course, the typical Patek slavish devotion to beautiful finishing. One additional softening touch is the bezel’s beveled edges, which are echoed in the complex shape of the sapphire crystal. These dynamic contrasts make the Cubitus a watch for the Rhodes scholar that likes to stay out all night, emerging from a hedonistic weekend prowling the night clubs of Berlin, still looking immaculate in his bespoke suit and shimmering like Proteus rising out of the sea.

Going Boldly Geometric: Patek Philippe Cubitus Reference 5821

OK, enough waxing lyrical. This is what you will want to know about the Cubitus. There are three watches comprising the family. The two time and date versions of the Reference 5821 are an all-steel model featuring the same stunning green dial that we saw in the end-of-series 5711, and a two-tone model in steel and rose gold, with a blue dial similar to that in the sought-after 5990 in rose gold. Both new watches are 45mm × 8.6mm. Both are aggressively priced (for Patek) at 35,000 Swiss francs for the steel model, and 57,000 Swiss francs for the two-tone model.

Now, let’s pause here for a second. Because it’s important to understand that Stern and Patek have basically engineered these two watches to go ballistic in demand, because they have placed two of the most desirable dials Stern has ever made in these two models. The green dial in particular is ravishing.

Stern was also obsessed with getting the Cubitus to be as slim as possible. He explains, “I love the elegance of the early Nautilus watches (Reference 3700-01A) and wanted to have this feeling in the Cubitus.” Both watches feature the Caliber 26-330.

So, I know the question you want to ask is, why 45mm in diameter, especially as we are now in a period when tastes are returning to more classic dimensions? How does the Cubitus Reference 5821 wear on the wrist? The answering is, surprisingly well — which you can check out in the video I made trying the watches.

Bear in mind that none of these bracelets has been sized to my wrist. Yet they feel balanced and comfortable when I put the watches on. There is a very distinct dynamic contrast between the strong muscular presence looking at the watches straight on, and the lithe supple elegance that you experience when you look at them in profile. They also feel very, very Patek Philippe and I mean this in the best way possible. The sizes of the watches were constrained by placing the round calibers inside the square cases.

When I asked if a mid-size version in the 37–38mm diameter range might be in the works, Stern replies with a smile, “Well, this is the launch of a family and we will add more models progressively in the future. That is something we have, of course, considered.”

Interestingly, while the Reference 5821 looks good on Stern and decent on me, it looks great on Stern’s son, Adrien. He was rocking the two-tone model with a light gray suit, a white opened-neck shirt and bracelets and rings. When I asked if clearly the next generation was the target audience for this watch, Stern replies, “Definitely we have to always think about broadening our audience and connecting with future generations.”

When asked if Adrien was involved in the design of the watch, Stern says, “Not this time as we had already started the project before he started working with me, but he is involved in many other aspects. For example, he spotted something in some of our early drafts on the advertisement that even I missed. I was happy about this, I said to myself, ‘He has the eye!’”

Perfect in Platinum: Patek Philippe Cubitus Reference 5822

As he explains all this, Stern is wearing the new Cubitus Reference 5822 in platinum with instantaneous big date, instantaneous days of the week and instantaneous moonphase display.  While my personal take is that the time and date Reference 5821 might be slightly too big for me, bear in mind that I am a diminutive Asian guy. That watch probably looks perfect on someone more strapping, I have to say, though, that the Reference 5822 on my wrist is perfect. Why? First of all, I can read every single indication without having to dig out my reading glasses.

I like to joke that when you reach the age that you can afford a perpetual calendar, this is also the age where you will never be able to read it. But it’s a truism. My amazing yellow gold Reference 5970 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph with the bronze dial and my wonderful blue ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar? I always keep them set so their information is correct. But ask me to read them without my old man reading glasses on, I couldn’t tell you a single thing. Zilch, zero, nada. And the deterioration of my eyesight happened virtually overnight when I turned 50. If you are young and have perfect eyesight then you can laugh, but time catches up with all of us, you young mofos, one day you too will relate.

But more than just its fantastic legibility, the layout on the dial of the Cubitus Big Date Reference 5822 is perfectly designed. The big date or, as they say in French, “grande date” windows are positioned just above the hands and super easy to read. The great thing here is that the two date wheels are on the same plane, which means that they are borrowing technology from the Patek In-line Perpetual Calendar Reference 5236, launched back in 2021. They jump in just 18 milliseconds, which, for lack of a better description, is “fast as fxxk boiii!” And they are just one of the details to make this movement as slim as possible at just 4.76mm in thickness, resulting in a watch that is just 9.6mm thick.

Says Philip Barat, Patek Philippe’s technical guru, “When we first completed the movement, we showed it to Thierry. It was 5.2mm in thickness, which would have resulted in a thicker watch, and he just looked at it, handed it back to me and said, ‘It’s too thick, please start again.’ So thinness dictated everything. We started with the beautiful slim micro-rotor movement, the Caliber 240. But then we had to add an additional 200 parts to it. (There are a total of 353 parts in the movement.) We jeweled every single pinion (52 jewels in total) to ensure there was a minimum of friction because the Caliber 240 is not precisely what we call a ‘tractor.’

“But then came the most important part. At first, the movement was not instantaneous. We had three 24-hour wheels, one for each of the three indications. But in order to make it slimmer, we had to restart again using a ‘grande bascule’ or in English ‘large rocker device,’ which reads time off one 24-hour wheel and transmits it to the three different indications. This resulted in an all-new movement which received six patents.”

Amongst these is, first, a tangential brake on the 10th date wheel. When the indications jump from 31 to 1, all energy is directed to the 10th date wheel. This can sometimes create a double jump effect and the brake prevents this. Second, there is a flexible day corrector that allows you to change the indications of the watch at any time without worrying about damaging it. Third, a very smart dual spring allows you to set the time backward or forward, though the indications only move forward.

OK, so this is the cool part. At precisely midnight, the big date, the moonphase and the days of the week all jump forward instantaneously. The result is a watch that is incredibly legible, effortless to use and impossible to break. Says Stern, “I realized that so many of our collectors are actually intimidated at adjusting the indications on their watches. For example, people bring their perpetual calendars to the service center to set them. For this watch, I wanted it to have the ‘non-intimidation factor.’ The message is, enjoy it, use it and don’t be afraid to set it. This is also super important as we try to reach out to a broader audience.”

What also happened was a rush to judgement about the model based on a single image of the watch face of the 5822. Says Stern, “I don’t love these types of ads because you don’t understand the watch completely. You need to see it from the side and put it on your wrist.” This brings to mind something that Patek collector John Mayer had said to me in conversation earlier this year. He stated, “When someone plays me a song, I’ll listen to it. And after that I’ll say, ‘Play it again.’ Because it’s hard to have a meaningful comment until you really understand it.” In today’s environment everyone is clamoring to be the first or the loudest in terms of their opinion. A fashion brand named The Row banned social media from their presentations. Why? Because they wanted you to watch the show in totality first, think about it and then form an educated opinion.

The Power of Evolving

From my perspective, the Patek Philippe Cubitus is a very smart addition to Patek Philippe’s sports chic range of watches. It is at once spiritually aligned with the Nautilus and the Aquanaut, yet simultaneously totally distinct as a more aggressive, bolder and more modern timepiece. Says Stern, “We were overproducing steel watches and I want to focus more on our precious metal timepieces. The one part of the watch that is most scarce is the movement, because it takes the most human hours.” The message is that if, for now, the Nautilus Reference 5811 is only made in white gold or other precious metals, then the green dial, steel Cubitus Reference 5821 is poised to be one of the hottest watches around.

I also love the fact that Patek Philippe, a brand that is perceived to be venerable and august, is not afraid to move the story forward and evolve. With Adrien Stern joining his father and Tristan, who is a watchmaker, finishing up school in Spain and also seemingly intent on becoming part of the family business, we could well have some of the most exciting years of Patek ahead of us, with the Cubitus being just the first sign of what is to come.