Patek Philippe Ellipse, White Gold Ref. 3545 1970s

The Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse Ref. 3545 is among the most architecturally considered watches Patek Philippe produced in the twentieth century — a form study as much as a timepiece, conceived in 1968 and rooted in the mathematics of the golden ratio. Where the vertical oval of the standard Golden Ellipse reads as portrait, the Ref. 3545 orients the elliptical case horizontally, dramatically widening the wrist presence and giving the watch a low, linear quality entirely distinct from its sibling. On the wrist, particularly in white gold, it reads less like a watch than like a considered piece of jewellery that also tells the time.