Available in six new colourways, the Gondolo Ladies First watch represents the first women’s collection launch from Patek Philippe since 2018. Read all about it below.
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Unveiled this week at the opening of Patek Philippe’s new ‘Watch Art’ Grand Exhibition in Milan, which comes just after the seasonal flurry of Milan Fashion Week, Patek Philippe has just released a glamorous new collection of women’s watches called Gondolo Ladies First.
The six new wristwatches represent the first major new women’s launch from the venerable Swiss watchmaker, since it launched the Twenty-4 Automatic collection, which debuted in October 2018.
The new collection also riffs on the brand’s breakthrough design of its 2009 Ladies First Chronograph, with its cushion-shaped, Art Deco-inspired case, now enlivened with diamond-set dials. Three ‘Joaillerie’ versions in rose gold, white gold, or a mix of both, take gem-setting to dizzying new heights, with the entire dial, case and lugs entirely pavéd with over 600 brilliant-cut diamonds.
They also boast colourful gemstone hour markers, in blue topaz, green tsavorite or purple amethyst, and matching leather straps in either peacock blue, green or purple.
Three other versions, in white gold or rose gold, are more suitable for day, featuring engraved opaline dials, and matching calfskin straps, with either a denim finish or grained finish, in blue, chestnut brown or yellow-toned beige.
Patek Philippe certainly has form when it comes to women’s timepieces. Indeed, included in the exhibition is the maker’s very first wristwatch – an ornate yellow gold and enamel model made in 1868 for the Countess Koscowicz of Hungary.
The new Gondolo Ladies First watches build on this pedigree, taking design cues from the innovative Ladies First Chronograph but powered by Patek Philippe’s E15 quartz movement, which measures just 1.8mm thick, making this slender, super wearable wristwatch ideal for daily wear or dressing up.
Its elegant, Art Deco-esque case design, with its rounded square silhouette, harks back to another Gondolo collection that Patek Philippe first unveiled in the early 1990s. Two existing haute joaillerie models from this line, originally launched in 2016, will remain as part of the collection, set with brilliant and baguette-cut diamonds and luminous Akoya pearl bracelets.
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