Patek Philippe Announces The Aquanaut Luce Minute Repeater, The First Grand Complication Aquanaut
The entry level Patek just stepped into the heavyweight ring.
Patek Philippe doesn’t really do so-called quiet luxury, or at least it doesn’t do it in the way we mean the term these days. If you know anything about watches at all, there are very few Patek watches which would pass unnoticed and even in its simplest watches there is a rich glow of what I’d call, less quiet luxury, and more dignified opulence (although that doesn’t roll quite as trippingly off the tongue). The closest thing to quiet luxury in Patek’s arsenal, although how quiet the family is, is debatable, is the Aquanaut line (with the exception of some of the Calatravas) which was launched in 1997 and which has largely been thought of for most of its history as a relatively low-lift way to get into Patek Philippe – the sports casual model, versus the sports luxury vibe of the Nautilus, which when it was introduced was specifically marketed at launch as the most you could spend anywhere on a stainless steel watch.
The Aquanaut has come in a number of different variations over the years but one thing it has never particularly been, is a vehicle for complicated watchmaking. Complications in the Aquanaut family generally stop at travel time watches, chronographs, and annual calendars – all solid complications of course, and all three very practical; if you were to break out the Aquanaut as a separate brand, despite the fact that the current catalogue has a relatively small number of variations (22, as of this writing) you could still have your choice of anything from a practical daily driver, to high jewelry watches that don’t have to curtsey to anything from any other brand.

One interesting exception to the rule that the Aquanaut’s not a vehicle for complications was the 2017 Advanced Research project Travel Time, reference 55650G. The Advanced Research Project watches are platforms for demonstrating new technology and the Aquanaut Advanced Research Travel Time used a new, crab-shaped system of steel springs, machined as a single element, as the transmission system for the pushers controlling the local time hand.
The latest complicated Aquanaut is the Aquanaut Luce Minute Repeater, which is the most complicated watch by a big margin to ever appear in an Aquanaut case. It’s also an unusual move in that, rather than releasing a Aquanaut repeater in a standard steel, gold, or platinum case, Patek has instead released its first Aquanaut as an elaborately gem-set watch in two versions – one with a rainbow gradient sapphire and diamond bezel, and another model with a fully gem-set bracelet as well. Both watches are in rose gold Aquanaut cases, with the distinctive curved Aquanaut grid dial re-interpreted in baguette cut diamonds, and with rainbow sapphire indexes, color matched to the adjacent sapphires on the bezel.
Now there is a little bit of a reflexive tendency among those of us who consider ourselves serious (whatever that means) enthusiasts, to dismiss a gem set watch as mere bling or as something designed to appeal to folks who like gaudy, flashy baubles but who wouldn’t know a minute repeater surprise piece if they were hit over the head with one. However, as with anything else, with gem setting and especially, horological gem setting it is at least as much about how you do what you do, as it is about what you are doing in the first place.
Let’s first take a look at the baguette cut diamonds on this watch. Choosing high quality stones, distinguished by their clarity, lack of inclusions, and other marks of quality is just the first step. The baguette-cut diamonds on the bezel and on the dial are, and this is easy to miss if you’re not looking for it, all slightly different shapes – the bezel of the Aquanaut is not an evenly round or square shape and the diamonds are all cut with slightly different geometries, in order to ensure that they lie perfectly adjacent to each other. Optically this allows for better light transmission as well, as the diamonds aren’t separated by metal. The diamonds cut for the dial require the same attention to their geometry in order to both lie exactly adjacent, and also to reflect the grid-shaped pattern on the basic Aquanaut dial.
Now, let’s look at the gradient color sapphires. All the same considerations apply in terms of geometry and cut which apply to the diamonds, but with the additional problem that for a color gradient, each stone has to be exactly color matched to its mates and to the overall gradient plan, so that the transitions across the color spectrum appear even and consistent to the eye. This is difficult enough if you’re just trying to create a rainbow gradient along the circumference of a bezel. The version of the Luce repeater with the full-set bracelet not only has a gradient bezel, with color-matched gradient indexes, but also a color gradient across the bracelet, which – and this is really bananas – flows seamlessly into a color gradient on the case flank, which matches the gradient on both the bracelet and the dial.
In fact every surface set with colored stones, is covered with colored stones that have been gradient-matched to the stones on other surfaces, right down to the ever-lovin’ repeater slide.
To say that this is difficult is to merely state the obvious but it is still worth saying because there is, for sure, bling for the sake of bling which is all about sheer karat weight and very little else, but this ain’t that. This level and quality of cutting, setting, and color matching is as technically demanding as making a minute repeater movement (not that I would know from experience, never having had to do either, but if ever a watch called for a little appropriate hyperbole, it’s this one).
And yeah, I know, I’m focusing a lot on the full-set version but just look at for crying out loud and besides, I’m the sheriff around here. One other thing about color matching stones – finding a high quality colored stone is only the beginning; sometimes you have to discard up to 90 per cent of a gem-quality sapphire to get an exact match. Rose gold gold as well as diamonds and sapphires transmit sound very well – this watch probably sounds amazing as well on top of everything else.
To state the obvious, there are not a ton of clients for something like this and price is on request although I suspect that anyone who actually is a client for this already has the Geneva boutique on speed-dial (if that is even a thing anymore). Patek says that during the “introductory phase” (whatever that means) these watches will only be available at the Paris, London, and Geneva boutiques. If you’re into this sort of thing, and I am, why not visit all three? Might as well get a little mini-Grand Tour in there along with your Grand Complication.
For more info, feast your eyes on the prize at Patek Philippe.