In addition to the production of watches, pocket watches and table clocks and other timepiece products, some brand fans also know that they also produce some non-timepiece peripheral products, if from the accessories listed on the PP current official website, at least cufflinks, earrings, rings, In addition to key rings and wallets, and even everything you might or may not think of such as Limoges ceramics and enamel plates, Patek Philippe has another item that has been out of print for a long time and is now attracting the attention of collectors: the Golden Ellipse lighter (I haven't heard of it before).
▲Patek Philippe's official website currently launched accessories products, including cufflinks, earrings and key rings.
If you haven't heard of Golden Ellipse lighters, it is normal, because PP only produced such products in the late 1970s ~ early 1980s, and the number is also very small, it is estimated that the brand only made 200~400 lighters.
At that time, the reason why Patek Philippe produced lighter products was related to the background of the times, when the watch industry was in a period of great invasion of quartz watches, coupled with social changes, and the emergence of a new generation of wealthy classes, so the market demand for luxury diversity was also increasing.
▲Patek Philippe once launched peripheral products such as lighters based on the Golden Ellipse series.
At that time, Patek Philippe was a stage of steady progress in the era of change, when the Nautilus series had just been born for a while, and the Golden Ellipse, which had a characteristic oval case, was more in line with the trend of the market for dress watches in those years, and the Golden Ellipse came out in 1968, which accumulated more and longer market reputation than the Nautilus series, so more than ten years after the appearance of this work, PP has been successively released from Golden Ellipse's exterior styling has evolved into products such as rings, key rings, and lighters.
▲The oval shape of the Golden Ellipse's signature became an excellent inspiration for lighters, and Patek Philippe is known to have produced about 200~400 Golden Ellipse lighters in the 1970s~1980s.
John Reardon, a senior foreign PP collector, pointed out that the Golden Ellipse product line was the first time that the brand created a variety of peripheral products based on specific geometric shapes, and the golden age of this non-watch production was in the late 1970s ~ early 1980s. Instead, jewel-setters and enamel-painters apply their skills to products such as cufflinks, tie clips, rings, key chains and lighters.
▲Patek Philippe cooperated with the British lighter brand COLIBRI in the past to develop the Golden Ellipse lighter, and PP was responsible for the exterior design and production of the lighter.
Among them, the lighter is a more special product, because of its larger size, relatively speaking, it can better express the aesthetics of the Golden Ellipse, looking back at the Golden Ellipse lighter products at that time, Patek Philippe made the body with precious metals such as gold or platinum, and carved by hand on the lighter body such as herringbone pattern, Patterns such as straight stripes or what the brand calls wavy patterns, and even the brand incorporates enamel techniques to make lighters, are also open to customization, such as the Golden Ellipse lighter made by the Sultan of Oman in the Middle East.
▲In addition to the carved surface of the fuselage, the side of the lighter is also engraved with the Patek Philippe brand words, which helps to enhance the collection value of the lighter.
However, after all, the production of lighters and timepieces belong to different fields, so PP is not produced from scratch, but to find the British lighter brand COLIBRI cooperation, that is, the core technology of lighters is provided by COLIBRI, and Patek Philippe focuses on appearance design, decoration and other aspects.
However, there was a slight criticism in the market about PP finding COLIBRI cooperation, probably because there were other lighter manufacturers on the market that were more famous than COLIBRI and were considered more suitable to co-brand with Patek Philippe, so some collectors at that time would have a wait-and-see attitude towards Golden Ellipse lighters, because they felt that the core technology and quality of lighters could be better (of course, the design and workmanship of lighters were nothing to say).
▲In the 2020 Phillips auction, a custom-made Golden Ellipse lighter that originally belonged to the Sultan of Oman in the Middle East was sold, with a transaction value of more than 50,000 Swiss francs.
However, until now, the Golden Ellipse lighter, which was polarized at that time, has been very popular in the market. About three years ago, Golden Ellipse lighters and other PP lighters have become more and more popular and marketable, but it is known that there are less than 60 Patek Philippe lighters at auction so far.
According to Phillips, the demand for PP lighters is increasing, for example, in November 2020, a Phillips auction sold a PP custom enamel lighter that originally belonged to Qaboos, the Sultan of Oman, for 52,920 Swiss francs, which is a lot of money that can be used to buy high-end watches.
After more than 40 years of Golden Ellipse lighters, John Reardon summed up the popularity of this merch product due to its rarity, gorgeous appearance, external craftsmanship, etc., and the fact that it comes from Patek Philippe's pedigree, considering that they are in smaller numbers than many Patek Philippe watches, so it is not too surprising that this product is now popular.
Original source: World Watch
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