What We Know
If I had to pick an early frontrunner for the most unexpected releases from Watches and Wonders. The ultra-modern automotive-themed minute repeater certainly shocked me. A new 24-hour alarm watch might be the brand’s most practical new complication in a while. But what flew under the radar (for me at least), only to turn around and hit me like a semi-trailer full of bricks at 100 miles per hour: the Patek 6105G “Celestial Sunrise and Sunset.”
There’s a whole lot going on here. It’s an intensely modern and unexpected design from Patek, with a disco volante-style, sizeable lugless case, a rubber strap, a white-gold case with etched lugs, and an X-shaped design meant to evoke the vibe of tubular structures on space modules. Then there’s the high watchmaking that Patek is known for.
There’s a new movement, with six patents, that features hours and minutes of mean solar time, a sky chart (like a celestial), a floating ellipse representing the visible part of the sky for a given latitude, the meridian, the time of meridian passage of Sirius and of the moon, angular motion of the moon, a pointer date and moon phases. But for the first time ever in a Patek wristwatch, they’ve included sunrise and sunset time indications and a Daylight Saving Time adjuster. The sunrise and sunset displays are shown below in two sections, with hands pointing to the lower-left and lower-right segments of the dial.
All of this is due to the new Caliber 240 C LU CL LCSO, built on the 49-year-old caliber 240 base, with micro-rotor winding. The caliber gets a lot larger in the Celestials, but Patek decided that it needed to add functions while not going any wider, just thicker. The new caliber adds 121 parts (426 parts in total) to the Celestial, but it’s only 1.12 millimeters thicker, for a total of 7.93 millimeters thick and 38mm wide. The watch features the Patek Philippe Seal, so it should run -1/+2 second per day. The functions are power-intensive, so there’s a maximum 48-hour power reserve on this watch.
Caliber 240 C LU CL LCSO
It is a big caliber, and the watch got even bigger than the standard 6104 Celestial, but that caliber is hidden behind a closed caseback. Now 3mm wider, the Celestial Sunrise and Sunset measures 47mm by 12.19mm (actually quite a reasonable thickness) and emphasizes the flying saucer shape with a lugless design and black, vulcanized polymer strap with X-shaped decorative motifs and the brand’s patented triple-blade double-security fold-over clasp in 18K white gold. Since there are no lugs, there’s no lug width listed. And yet, surprisingly, the brand decided to share that the strap measures 31mm at its widest point. An interesting fact!
The already complex Celestial display now looks even fuller, and yet somehow seems readable in pictures. Hours, minutes, seconds, pointer date, the rotating circle highlighting the celestial vault—all of those make sense. Two oval cams inside the movement rotate throughout the year, representing the Earth’s tilt on its axis, and a feeler spindle reads these and, through a number of other parts, turns them into the sunrise and sunset times. That, creatively, is represented on the same scale used for the date (which is boldly indicated with a red hand). By using push pieces hidden in the case, you can change daylight saving time (which then moves the date disc to adjust the scale back or forward, rather than adjusting the hands). The date adjusts itself during that switch as well.
There are no non-gemset versions of the 6104 “standard” Celestial available anymore, so the cheapest version now is the 6104R with a diamond bezel. That would set you back $532,759 (at the time of writing) if you wanted to keep things smaller (by 3mm wide and 0.8mm thick). But the new ref. 6105G, with its new innovations, feels like a deal by comparison at $437,610.
What We Think
We can’t go any further without discussing how wild this new release looks. Patek has pushed the boundaries of design before (including divisive moves like putting a minute repeater in an Aquanaut and then setting it with a rainbow of precious stones), but I don’t recall any watch that has gone this far for the brand. This is extreme, and extreme on purpose, it seems. At first look, it reminds me of a Richard Mille, like the RM-032 or a pared-back RM25-01 “Stallone” that merged with a Patek Celestial. Maybe a splash of Greubel Forsey or something in there as well. Maybe I’m crazy, but the more I look at it, the more I’m liking this super futuristic Disco Volante look. At some point, Patek was going to take a risk and push outside their standard designs, and I think this is a solid attempt.
On the technical side, there’s a lot to unpack. To maintain the same diameter as the base Celestial while only giving a slight extra thickness is impressive. I haven’t had a chance to look up the six patents filed by Patek, one of which covers that ingenious switch for summer and winter (or daylight saving time), but I’m curious what bits of innovation they were able to pull off. It’s by far not the first or the only watch with sunrise/sunset complication on the market, but a first for Patek is still a thing worth celebrating.
I’m also not sure if the team will get to see this in person at Watches and Wonders. If not, I’m hoping I can ask Patek to see it on a future trip to the Salon in Geneva. To some high-end collectors I’ve spoken with, the Celestial has (quite unfortunately) been seen as a stepping stone toward things like a Sky Moon Tourbillon or Grandmaster Chime, rather than its own thing to be appreciated. Now, I think the Celestial Sunrise and Sunset will be a massive flex on its own.
The Basics
Brand: Patek Philippe
Model: Celestial Sunrise and Sunset
Reference Number: 6105G-001
Diameter: 47mm
Thickness: 12.19mm
Case Material: 18K white gold with original X-shaped decoration evoking the tubular structure of space modules
Dial Color with Indices: One disk in sapphire crystal with metallization, 2 disks in mineral crystal; Watch crystal in sapphire with metalized indications; Ellipse demarcating the portion of the sky visible from Geneva or from any other city located on the same latitude in the northern hemisphere; 4 cardinal points; Scale for the indication of sunrise and sunset
Lume: None
Water Resistance: 30m
Strap/Bracelet: Polymer, black, vulcanized with X-shaped decorative motifs; Patented triple-blade double-security fold-over clasp in 18K white gold. 31mm at the widest point.
The Movement
Caliber: Caliber 240 C LU CL LCSO
Functions: Sunrise and sunset time indications; Summer time/winter time correction; Hours and minutes of mean solar time; Sky chart; Ellipse representing the visible part of the sky for a given latitude; Meridian; Time of meridian passage of Sirius and of the Moon; Angular motion of the Moon; Date by hand; Moon phases
Diameter: 38mm (base movement 27.5mm)
Thickness: 7.93mm (base movement 3.43mm)
Power Reserve: 38 hours minimum, 48 hours maximum
Winding: Automatic micro rotor
Frequency: 21,600 vph
Jewels: 51
Chronometer Certified: No
Additional Details: Crown at 4 o’clock decorated with a Calatrava Cross for setting time; Crown at 2 o’clock decorated with 3 stars and the moon with bayonet system for setting annual index, moonphase, sky chart, and angular position of the moon
Pricing & Availability
Price: $437,610
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: No
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