On the occasion of Watches and Wonders 2026, Patek Philippe reaffirms its commitment to keeping alive and enriching the grand Geneva tradition of the Rare Handcrafts, through an exceptional creation now joining the current collection. The manufacture has reinterpreted one of the jewels in its museum’s collections, a pocket watch indicating the hours and minutes on demand, drawing inspiration from the famous fable “The Crow and the Fox” by Jean de la Fontaine. Presenting a poetic discovery of time, this rare object is the first Patek Philippe automaton wristwatch in the company’s modern history. Reference 5249R-001 reveals, as in a fable, the breadth and depth of the manufacture’s know-how, by shining the spotlight on a subtle alchemy between watchmaking complications and the rare handcrafts.
A modern interpretation of a treasure in the Patek Philippe Museum
Presented in 1958, the pocket watch “The Crow and the Fox” counts among the most remarkable and poetic of Patek Philippe’s creations. Now exhibited in the Patek Philippe Museum, this horological jewel, housing a mechanism indicating the hours and minutes on demand, drew inspiration from the seventeenth-century fable by Jean de la Fontaine, one of French literature’s most celebrated authors. In this short text, where pride meets flattery, a crow perched on a tree holds a large piece of cheese in its beak. A fox flatters the crow by saying that it must have a beautiful voice. The crow opens its beak to sing, the precious cheese falls out and the cunning fox snatches it. The moral is simple: beware of flattery, which often has a hidden objective.
This pocket watch in yellow gold, 52 millimeters in diameter with the automaton, shows the fable’s two protagonists in a setting of abundant foliage. At the demand of the user this fascinating engraving in platinum and several colors of gold comes to life to display the time on two sectors arranged along an arc. Within the watch beats caliber 17-170, a prototype movement that has never gone into production.
Modified by the great Genevan watchmaker Louis Cottier, it incorporates a system of double-retrograde display on demand enabling the fox and the crow to indicate respectively the hours and the minutes. One of the most highly reputed watchmakers of the twentieth century, Louis Cottier is famous for his invention of a system for indicating the time in multiple time zones (world time or dual time zones). He was also fascinated by mechanisms with atypical displays, such as hours on demand, or jumping hours or retrograde hands.
The theatre of time
Patek Philippe has now reinterpreted this masterpiece of technical and aesthetic creativity in a wristwatch that is the first automaton in the manufacture’s modern history and a first for this type of watchmaking specialty to be proposed in the regular collection. With Reference 5249R-001, matter awakens and the hours reveal themselves. It offers an artistic, poetic vision of time made possible by the prowess of the manufacture’s watchmakers and artisans.
With its mechanism indicating the hours and minutes on demand, this automaton is not only decorative but functional. Its original manner of displaying the time allows us to enter into the famous fable by following the movement of the retrograde hours and minutes activated on demand. The playlet is skillfully orchestrated according to a sequence offering the indication first of the hours and then the minutes. Thus the roguish fox flatters the crow, which, in wanting to show the minutes, drops its cheese.
At one pressure on the push-button at the two o’clock position, the fox indicates the hours with its paw or its muzzle. The paw indicates the hours from zero to six o’clock. The muzzle takes over for the hours from seven o’clock to eleven fifty-nine. Maintaining the pressure on the push-piece causes the minute hand, decorated with a piece of cheese at its tip, to drop from the crow’s beak to indicate the minutes on a graduated scale. Once the time has been read off and the push-button released, the retrograde indicators return to their resting position.
Bringing this spectacle to life required a complex mechanism. A large lever, set in motion by the pusher at two o’clock, was specially devised to detect the hours and then trigger the mechanism detecting the minutes. Its unusual design results in a sense of smoothness and precision that is very enjoyable for the person actuating the function.
Lastly, a decorative small-seconds counter replacing the hand with a star in white gold set with a diamond is the only constantly moving element: a poetic way of informing the wearer that the watch is working well.
Time as a work of art
Patek Philippe has always conceived its watches as works of art whose aesthetic refinement must reflect mechanical perfection. This animated tableau reveals an extraordinary play of perspective and depth highlighted by craftsmanship requiring particular dexterity and attention to detail.
The dial comprises a plate of 18K gold, tinted “Matara” brown with an opaline finish, forming the background to no less than 10 appliques in rose gold, yellow gold and white gold with hand engraving. In view of their finesse and diminutive size, these parts called for great precision and a rare kind of know- how. While some features are purely decorative, the fox’s head and paws are functional parts, constituting an additional challenge. Any deformation implies the risk of putting the movement out of order. The engraver must therefore take care to gage the pressure exerted on the applique so not to alter its shape. At their thinnest, these applied features measure only 0.2 millimeters in thickness. The total thickness of the dial is 2.5 millimeters. For each watch, a good 150 hours of meticulous manual work are required of the artisan to produce the engraving on all the appliques.
The minute hand, whose tip reproduces the shape of a wedge of cheese, hand engraved and plated in yellow gold, is made of titanium. This material was chosen for its lightness and resistance. It prevents any deformation when the hand moves backwards after having indicated the minutes, during its return into the crow’s beak.
The appliques for the retrograde display of the hours and minutes and the arc-shaped Patek Philippe cartouche are fashioned in 18K yellow gold adorned with rhodium plating and a circular satin-brushed finish. Their polished bevels in yellow gold play up the contrast with the dial. The hour scale beside the fox presents engraved, black-painted numerals from 1 to 12, while the minute scale next to the crow has five-minute divisions from 0 to 60. Set between the cartouche “PATEK PHILIPPE GENEVE” and the diamond-studded seconds star, a floral applique in gold with hand engraving and chasing work embellishes the dial.
Assembly of the different elements posed an additional challenge for the manufacture’s watchmakers and artisans. An ingenious patented clipping system allows the different parts of the decor to be attached once the dial has been screwed onto the movement. Indeed, four appliques (for the fox and its bush and the crow) are assembled after driving in the minute hand. The braces securing each applique are inserted from the side of the case by rotation in notches in the appliques. With this solution the appliques are attached and held perfectly in place without generating any excess thickness.
The elegance of time
This fascinating spectacle takes place in a rose-gold case, 43mm in diameter, whose understatement accentuates the purity of its lines. As is characteristic of the Patek Philippe “Officer-style” watches, the sapphire-crystal case back is protected by a hinged dust cover. Its elegant straight screw-set lugs are slender and gently incurved to follow the shape of the wrist. In addition to the Turban-style crown, a rectangular push-button with slightly rounded edges on the side of the case at two o’clock actuates the time display.
Time as a mechanism
To animate this poetic horological fable, Patek Philippe developed caliber 31-260 PS HMD AU. As a result, time reveals itself on demand, in a perfectly timed performance where every moment becomes a tableau vivant. This feat is made possible by an additional mechanism displaying the retrograde hours and minutes on demand, added to the caliber 31-260 PS ultra-thin self-winding movement with unidirectional mini-rotor in platinum.
As the retrograde display mechanism functions by means of snail-shaped cams, setting the time requires turning the crown clockwise, this action will move the hands backwards. To avoid any damage to the movement, the mechanism is protected by a patented coupling system. This system prevents any risk of damage should the wearer try to set the time while turning the crown anti-clockwise.
Opening the hinged Officer-type cover reveals a sapphire crystal allowing the watch’s owner to admire the mechanism’s splendid architecture and painstaking finishing touches. Comprising no less than 267 parts, this new movement with retrograde hours and minutes display on demand by an automaton possesses an off-center mini-rotor, a signature feature of the movements in the 31-260 family. Its Gyromax® balance boasts a Spiromax® balance spring in Silinvar®. Its frequency is 4 Hz.
Presented as a wristwatch, this masterpiece of craftsmanship and technical prowess is worn on an alligator leather strap in shiny chocolate brown secured by a triple-blade fold-over patented clasp in rose gold, combining comfort and safety.
While its annual production naturally remains very limited, owing to its complexity and the time required to make it, this extraordinary alliance of watchmaking complications and rare handcrafts will join the Genevan manufacture’s current collection.
