Be THERE And be SQUARE

When Patek Philippe announces a brand new collection in 25 years, the horological world sits up and takes notice. OFFICIEL was privileged to be among the first to discover the casual chic Cubitus at the international launch in Munich. Here’s what went down.

- YONG WEI JIAN

A day before the trip, I received a message on my phone. It was an image of a Patek Philippe ad, which read: “The Cubitus Collection”. Below is a familiar yet never-before-seen square watch. Is this…? No, it cannot be. With the rampant speculation surrounding the launch, perhaps it’s an AI deepfake, those are quite convincing these days. I scoured the snapshot again for hints of artificiality, unable to shake off its uncanniness. Could this really be an authentic leak? What even is a “Cubitus”?

We landed in Munich and an internal memo confirmed the blunder. Whoops, guess someone’s about to have a really bad day. So, the Cubitus is real after all. Surprisingly, the group barely discussed the slip-up or the curious square watch — partly in respect of Patek Philippe and the proper timing of things, and partly because we didn’t want to spoil the surprise for ourselves. Instead, we allayed our anticipation by soaking up Bavarian culture with countless beers and wursts at the always-boisterous Hofbräuhaus.

The next day at Patek Philippe’s Germany headquarters, we were the first press group to be introduced to the new Cubitus collection. What an absolute privilege. Even better, we had first dibs with the President of Patek Philippe Mr Thierry Stern, who arrived in such high spirits that he couldn’t help but immediately launch into conversation: “For me, the goal really was to find a square watch that was sporty and classy.” Why square, specifically? “Because we don’t have many of them in the collection,” he says. “And if we want to have a complete collection, I need a beautiful square watch to be a part of it.” Indeed, Patek Philippe has done plenty of shaped cases under the Gondolo line, mostly rectangular, tonneau or cushion, but when it came to squares, turns out there really aren’t many examples throughout the entire history of the brand.