When Patek Philippe launched the Golden Ellipse ref. 5738/1R-001 at this year’s Watches & Wonders, the company took as much pride in presenting the craftsmanship involved with the making of the new bracelet as the watch itself. It even patented the bracelet’s construction which to quote the website, “made it possible to recreate the style of the classic chain bracelets.”
One of the many wonderful reasons for buying vintage Patek Philippe watches is that it is possible to own a watch that has the original, classic chain bracelet at a lower cost of a new bracelet watch today. Most importantly, the techniques used to make vintage bracelets are lost to the fine art of chain smithing, and to replicate the same standard today would be cost prohibitive.
Bracelets started to regularly appear on watches from the late 1920s. To begin with, bracelets were made in gold or platinum, usually for women’s watches which were considered pieces of jewelry. Men did not regularly start to wear gold bracelets until the 1950s. However, folded stainless steel bracelets started to appear for men around the Second World War, in part, because gold became scarce during war time, and because of the usefulness of steel tool watches.
The “classic chain bracelets” that Patek Philippe is now able to recreate the “style” of were originally made by independent, fine jewelers, many of whom also made cases for the company. In this article, we will look at the manufacturers that Patek Philippe worked with most often to create a bracelet that matched the quality of the watch it supported.
Many watch bracelet manufacturers started as a chainiste, the French word for a company that made chains for pocket watches. In the 19th century, Geneva was renown for the quality of its chainistes but as demand for pocket watch chains started to decrease in the early 20th century, these companies had to adapt and offer bracelets as well as watch chains. Most of the chainistes were not able to survive and went out of business. The bracelet makers discussed below are those that adapted and thrived suppling only the finest watch makers of the time.
Original watch bracelets made by the chainistes are in a league of their own and are truly works of art unto themselves. There is a growing appreciation for vintage bracelet watches both because of their unmatched quality, and their value for money. The new bracelet Ellipse ref. 5738/1R retails for just over USD 60,000. An Ellipse bracelet watch from the 1970s or 1980s made by a master chainiste can start around USD 10,000.
Gay Frères
The best known of all bracelet maker is the legendary jeweler Gay Frères. The company was founded in 1835 in Geneva by Jean-Pierre Gay and Gaspard Tissot. They soon became renown as a chainiste making chains for pocket watches and women’s jewelry. By the 1960s and 1970s they became equally famous for their artisan jewelry which is sought after by modern collectors. Today, many will know Gay Frères as the company that manufactured two of the most iconic bracelet designs in watch history: the Nautilus (ref. 3700 in 1976) and the Royal Oak (1972).
Gay Fréres was one of the first companies to dive deep into stainless steel bracelet manufacturing in the early 20th century. Until 1914, Gay Frères only made bracelets in gold or platinum but by the late 1920s, their innovation with steel led to one of their Bonklip-style bracelet design which Rolex was the first to embrace in the 1930s. The Bonklip was not only comfortable, but extendable and robust. Although not a technically important bracelet to manufacture, it was hard wearing and versatile and became most popular on tool watches, especially for military use. By 1942, Gay Frères was using around 1000kg of stainless steel per month, producing an enormous 700 bracelets a day. The early Oyster watches first sported the utilitarian bracelet and is still one of the brand’s most enduring styles. Perhaps it not surprising that Rolex brought Gay Frères in 1998.
The company’s mastery of stainless steel also attracted Patek Philippe and Gay Frères made bracelets for some of its most iconic steel watches, the most famous of which is the ‘beads of rice’ bracelet on the ref. 1518A auctioned in 2016. Originally made in 1943 and retailing for CHF2,265, the watch later sold at Phillips auction house for CHF11,000,000.
Gay Frères’ brilliance as a jeweler also attracted Gilbert Albert who commissioned the company to make some of his most complicated and intricate watch and jewelry designs for Patek Philippe.
Ponti Gennari
The other bracelet maker that is regarded as the best of the best is Ponti Gennari. For many years, it had its workshops at Atelier Rèunis, the building that now houses the Patek Philippe Museum. Ponti Gennari’s bracelets were so highly valued, that during the 1950s and the height of their popularity, a bracelet by the jeweler could add an additional CHF 1,500 to the price of a Patek Philippe watch. Ponti Gennari was known for its flamboyant style and worked closely with Patek Philippe when it was looking for something special. One of the most iconic Ponti Gennari bracelets is known as the clamshell or lobster tail. It is not surprising therefore that collectors often seek out this venerable bracelet maker. In 1969, Ponti Gennari was purchased by Piaget.
Jean Pierre Ecoffey
Jean Pierre Ecoffey specialized in the highest quality of bracelet making. Their work can be identified by a JPE stamp on the clasp. JPE was known for making jewelry and bracelets for Patek Philippe during the second half of the 20th century. JPE made the most sophisticated and complicated bracelets for Patek Philippe. If a fine mesh bracelet feels more like fabric rather than metal, it was likely made by Jean Pierre Ecoffey’s workshop.
So fine were JPE bracelets that they even come up for auction – without the original watch! For example, in May 2023, Phillips auction house in Geneva sold a bracelet made originally for a ref. 3448G for a staggering CHF44,450 (see above).
Cornu & Cie
Louis Cornu founded his company in 1877 specializing in pendant making for pocket watches. By 1914 the company started to specialize in the production of lugs for the burgeoning wristwatch industry. As demand for bracelets started to grow, in 1920 Cornu & Cie started developing clasps and extendible bracelets. Bracelets or buckles made by Cornu can be identified by the mark “UNROC” in a flat lozenge frame. Fun fact: “UNROC” is Cornu backwards.
Weber & Cie
Albert Weber started his eponymous company as a jeweler in 1918. Weber trained at the École d’Arts in Geneva, the famous art school where so many of Patek Philippe’s most gifted artisans trained. The jeweler made many of Patek Philippe’s early jeweled bracelet watches. It also made jewelry for the company, such as the stunning lace design of the diamond bracelet shown above with three round diamonds together weighing approximately 5.25 carats, further decorated with 229 round diamonds weighing approximately 24.50 carats and with 12 baguette diamonds weighing approximately 1.50 carats, mounted in platinum. It is rare, but not unusual for Patek Philippe to commission jewelry only and the company still makes examples of haute joaillerie, high jewelry for its Geneva store only.
Ateliers Réunis
Readers may be familiar with Ateliers Réunis as the now home of the Patek Philippe Museum. However, for many years, Ateliers Réunis was home to case and bracelet manufacturing and many iconic watch bracelets were made there. In 1975, Patek Philippe purchased Ateliers Réunis, in part because so many of its cases and bracelets were made by the company. Taking over the production of case and bracelet making at first proved a challenge for Patek Philippe, most notably with production of the Nautilus. Designed by Gerald Genta, the Nautilus case and bracelet design is extremely complicated. Initially, the precious metal bracelets were made by Gay Frères. Ateliers Réunis took over production of the steel bracelets and found their existing machinery was not precise enough. Patek Philippe soon understood that case and bracelet making was indeed a specialist industry and they needed to invest both time and money. It’s worth noting that this was happening in the 1970s when the Quartz Crisis had its grip on the future of mechanical watchmaking. Yet, Philippe Stern took a gamble and invested in the future – thank goodness he did!
It’s also worth noting that Patek Philippe President, Thierry Stern started his career at the Ateliers Réunis workshop which he found an invaluable experience. “Everything was done without machinery,” recalls Thierry Stern, “because we only had goldsmiths working on these bracelets. I could really see and feel the beauty of doing something by scratch, with just some tools and a piece of gold.” Perhaps it was this early impression that guided Thierry Stern to revisit the art of bracelet making with the new Ellipse ref. 5738/1R-001.
Jean-Pierre Hagmann
Jean-Pierre Hagmann, needs special recognition. Known by his initials “JPH”, he is a legend in the world of case making having made some of the most important watch cases, for example, minute repeater cases and the legendary Star Calibre cases for Patek Philippe. It is interesting to note that he started his storied career as a jeweler and bracelet maker, an experience which he credits as critical to his work as a case maker. In 1957, he began his career as a trainee jeweler at Ponti Gennari. He then joined Gay Frères in the watch bracelet department. Hagmann started making watch cases when he joined Gustave Brera in 1968. A few years later in 1971, he moved on to Jean-Pierre Ecoffey who had acquired the famed case maker Georges Crosier and made Hagmann head of the watch case division. In 1984, Hagmann opened his own watch case workshop.
The above are the most renown of Patek Philippe’s case makers, but there were times when the company would work with specialist jewelers when it wanted to create something unique for a watch. A good example is the ‘cheese grater’ design that was first seen on the Beta 21 ref. 3587 in 1969. The first Beta 21 or quartz watch made by the company needed to a bracelet unlike any other. The now iconic ‘cheese grater’ style was perfect as it was both robust (to support the 43 mm case of the ref. 3587/1) and a unique design to herald Patek’s early entry into the quartz watch world. The bracelets were made in Pforzheim, Germany by a specialist jeweler. The ‘cheese grater’ bracelet can also be seen on some rare examples of the Calatrava ref. 3593, and even a ref. 3448/8.
Next time you put a vintage Patek Philippe bracelet watch on your wrist, know you are wearing a true work of art that was made by artisans at a level of craftsmanship now sadly lost to the annals of history. Thankfully, the beauty of these watches will survive for generations.
July 2024
