Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse Ref. 5738

A watch drawn from a ratio

When Patek Philippe introduced the Golden Ellipse in 1968, it was the company's first new collection since the Calatrava of 1932. Its case is neither round nor square. The proportions follow the golden section, the ratio of roughly 1 to 1.618 that ancient Greek mathematicians studied and that the Renaissance mathematician Luca Pacioli called the divine proportion. A Patek Philippe advertisement from around 1968 described it as a rule the builders of Greek temples and medieval churches had guarded as a secret, passed from master to pupil.

Who drew it is debated. The usual credit goes to Jean-Daniel Rubeli, then the company's in-house stylist, working from the golden section. But Jean-Pierre Frattini, a young casemaker at Patek Philippe at the time, has recalled that Georges Delessert, then director of the electronics department, was inspired by the pleasing shape of an American highway junction seen from an airplane window.

How the case came to be mattered as much as its shape. For centuries watchmakers had chosen from designs their casemakers proposed. With the Ellipse, Patek Philippe designed the case itself and briefed the casemaker Ateliers Reunis to produce it. The company later bought Ateliers Reunis, and that firm's original building now houses the Patek Philippe Museum.

The first references, 3546 and 3548, wore a dial no one had seen before: blue gold. Early attempts to color an 18K gold dial by electroplating came out uneven, some tinged with brown. The dial maker Singer solved it with vacuum plating, vaporizing cobalt and 24K gold so they condensed onto the gold dial. The process was new enough that the Swiss precious-metals authority demanded a detailed account of every step.

A gold watch for the quartz decade

The Ellipse arrived just before quartz watches upended the Swiss industry. The company, then led by president Henri Stern, wanted a design that was unmistakably Patek Philippe, appealing to men and women alike, and hard for cheap mass-produced watches to imitate. In the 1970s it became the jet set's watch. Thierry Stern, Henri's grandson and today's president, has recalled thinking of it as a child as 'a piece to be worn by very classy people.'

It carried the company's advertising from the late 1960s into the early 1980s, much of it aimed at the United States, which became Patek Philippe's largest single market. A 1980 advertisement called a mesh-bracelet Ellipse a '$1700 Trust Fund.' A 1983 campaign called it 'The Non-Watch': people who merely need to know the time of day, it said, choose a watch, not a Patek Philippe.

The shape became a whole family. There were Ellipse cufflinks, key chains, letter openers, clocks, tie clips, zodiac pendants and, from 1973, gold Ellipse lighters. By the end of the 1970s the company was producing 65 different Ellipse versions, and one history credits the line's steady demand with helping the company and many of its craftspeople through the hard quartz years.

From the 3548 to the 'Jumbo'

The 3546 and 3548 stayed in the catalog until 1976. An oversize 'Jumbo Ellipse,' the ref. 3605, ran from 1971 into the early 1980s in a 38 x 33 mm case with an automatic date movement. The reference that fixed the line's classic proportions was the 3738, introduced alongside the ultra-thin self-winding caliber 240; most sources date it to 1977, one to 1978. It stayed in production until about 2009, through four series of movements.

In 2008, for the 40th anniversary, Patek Philippe made a new, larger version of the jumbo model, for the first time in platinum, with a sunburst blue gold dial: the ref. 5738P. A limited anniversary set of 100 paired the new 5738P with a platinum re-edition of the 3738. The larger 5738 gradually replaced the 3738 in the catalog.

For the 50th anniversary, announced in March 2018, the 5738 arrived in rose gold with an ebony black sunburst dial and an onyx cabochon in the crown: the 5738R, priced at CHF 27,200 at launch. A second anniversary piece, the platinum 5738/50P, was limited to 100, with a hand-engraved white gold dial under black enamel, boxed with matching cufflinks.

The family kept growing. In 2024 the 5738/1R put the watch on a rose gold chain-style bracelet of 363 elements, including more than 300 links mounted one by one by hand; one account says its construction took fifteen years to perfect. In April 2026 the white gold 5738G-001 arrived with an olive green sunburst dial (CHF 34,400), alongside a revived 3738 in its original 31.1 x 35.6 mm proportions.

How to read a 5738

Every 5738 shares the elliptical case, 34.5 x 39.5 mm by the maker's product specification and 5.9 mm thick, which Patek Philippe calls the thinnest watch in the collection. (The maker's own history page gives the jumbo as 34 x 39.5 mm.) Water resistance is 30 meters, the case back is solid, and the dial is an 18K gold plate with a sunburst finish, applied gold baton markers and slender cheveu-style hands.

Inside is caliber 240: 27.5 mm across, 2.53 mm thick, 152 parts, 27 jewels, at least 48 hours of power reserve, beating at 3 Hz, with an off-center 22K gold mini-rotor set into the movement rather than riding on top of it. That is how a self-winding watch stays under 6 mm. It carries the Patek Philippe Seal.

The suffix tells the metal and dial. The 5738P-001 is platinum with a sunburst blue dial and, like the maker's other platinum watches, a diamond set into the case at 6 o'clock. The 5738R-001 is rose gold with a black dial and onyx crown. The 5738/1R-001 adds the rose gold chain bracelet, the 5738G-001 is white gold with olive green, and the 5738/51G-001 is a Rare Handcrafts version with a hand-engraved gold dial and black champleve enamel.

At auction, and why it stays

The regular references have sold below their current retail prices. A 5738P-001 retailed in 2018 sold for $32,760 at auction in December 2022, and a rose gold 5738R-001 with its retailer's name, Tiffany & Co., on the dial brought the same $32,760 in an online sale based in Dubai in October 2023.

The limited pieces go higher, though they are sold as sets. A 50th-anniversary 5738/50P, offered by its original owner with its matching cufflinks, brought $98,280 in June 2022; a Tiffany-signed 5738R with cufflinks brought $37,800 at the same sale. Complete 2008 anniversary sets, each pairing a 5738P with a 3738P and including cufflinks and a necklace, have sold in Hong Kong for HK$952,500 and HK$375,000.

Patek Philippe has considered retiring the Ellipse, and kept it. 'It's like keeping a bit of the spirit of my grandfather,' Thierry Stern has said. His other line about it is printed on the maker's collection page: 'It's one of those watches that shows you how to make a Patek Philippe. No gimmicks, just purity and beauty expressed through simple design.'

The numbers

Reference

5738P-001, 5738R-001, 5738/1R-001, 5738G-001; limited 5738/50P-001 (100 pieces, 2018); Rare Handcrafts 5738/51G-001

Caliber

240, self-winding, ultra-thin: 27.5 mm wide, 2.53 mm thick, 152 parts, 27 jewels, 48-hour minimum reserve, 3 Hz, 22K gold mini-rotor

Case size

34.5 x 39.5 mm (maker's product specification), 5.9 mm thick

Case material

Platinum (with a diamond at 6 o'clock), rose gold or white gold

Water resistance

30 meters, solid case back

Production years

2008 to present

Production numbers

Not disclosed; anniversary editions of 100 in 2008 and 2018

Timeline

1. 1932

   The Calatrava is introduced; it is the maker's last new collection before the Ellipse.

2. 1968

   Patek Philippe introduces the Golden Ellipse, refs. 3546 and 3548, with a blue gold dial.

3. 1971

   The oversize 'Jumbo Ellipse' ref. 3605 (38 x 33 mm) appears; it runs into the early 1980s.

4. 1973

   The first gold Ellipse lighters are produced.

5. 1976

   Refs. 3546 and 3548 leave the catalog.

6. 1977

   The ref. 3738 appears with the new ultra-thin self-winding caliber 240 (one source says 1978).

7. 1980

   An advertisement calls a mesh-bracelet Ellipse a '$1700 Trust Fund.'

8. 1983

   The 'Non-Watch' advertising campaign runs.

9. 2008

   For the 40th anniversary, the jumbo ref. 5738P is launched in platinum with a blue gold dial, plus a 100-piece set pairing it with a 3738P re-edition.

10. 2009

    The ref. 3738 is discontinued.

11. Mar 2018

    For the 50th anniversary, the rose gold 5738R-001 and the 100-piece enamel 5738/50P are announced.

12. Jun 9, 2022

    A 5738/50P with its cufflinks sells for $98,280 at auction.

13. Dec 8, 2022

    A 5738P-001 retailed in 2018 sells for $32,760 at auction.

14. Oct 19, 2023

    A Tiffany-signed 5738R-001 sells for $32,760 in an online sale based in Dubai.

15. 2024

    The 5738/1R-001 introduces a rose gold chain-style bracelet of 363 elements.

16. Apr 2026

    The white gold 5738G-001 with olive green dial is introduced, alongside a revived 3738.

The world in 1968

• Jan 30, 1968

  The Tet Offensive begins in Vietnam.

• Feb 1968

  The Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France.

• Apr 4, 1968

  Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

• May 1968

  Student protests and a general strike bring France to the brink in the events of May 68.

• Jul 18, 1968

  The semiconductor company Intel is founded in California.

• Dec 24, 1968

  Apollo 8 enters lunar orbit; its crew become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon.

• Sep 15, 2008

  Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, the year the platinum 5738P is launched.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse Ref. 5738 is number 60 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (38 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Ellipse's blue gold dial was so novel that the Swiss precious-metals authority demanded a step-by-step explanation of how it was made.
• One account says the shape was inspired not by Greek geometry but by an American highway junction seen from an airplane.
• In 1980 a skeletonized Ellipse, the ref. 3880, retailed for $8,800, while a ref. 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph cost $13,500.
• By the end of the 1970s Patek Philippe was making 65 different versions of the Ellipse, more references than the Calatrava.
• The 5738/1R bracelet has more than 300 links, each mounted by hand.
• Patek Philippe still makes Golden Ellipse cufflinks in the shape of the case, in rose and white gold.