Poetry in motion with the Patek Philippe 5249R-001 “The Fox and the Crow” Automaton

With the Reference 5249R-001 “The Fox and the Crow”, Patek Philippe presents the first automaton of its modern history. Showcasing rare handcrafts and displaying the hours and minutes on demand, this poetic wristwatch is the reinterpretation of one of the treasures of the Patek Philippe Museum, a pocket watch from 1958. At the press of a pusher, as if by magic, a poetic world is set in motion, replaying the famous fable by Jean de La Fontaine, Le Corbeau et le Renard – The Fox and the Crow.

The 1958 Le Corbeau et le Renard Pocket Watch Reference 784

The Reference 5249R-001 is inspired by a remarkable pocket watch of the Patek Philippe museum’s collection, inspired by the fable by Jean de la Fontaine’s fable, the Fox and the Crow.

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was a French poet and fabulist, best known for his Fables, which are among the most widely read works in French literature. His fables often feature animals with human traits and carry moral lessons. The fable Le Corbeau et le Renard / The Fox and the Crow tells the story of a crow who sits in a tree with a piece of cheese. A fox flatters the crow, praising its beauty and suggesting it must have a beautiful voice too. Flattered, the crow begins to sing, drops the cheese, and the fox snatches it away. The lesson is not to trust praise when it comes from someone who stands to benefit from your vanity.

This richly decorated pocket watch features a movement customised by Louis Cottier. If the famous Geneva watchmaker is best known for his world time mechanism adopted by Patek Philippe or Vacheron Constantin, he was also a fan of alternative, avant-garde ways of displaying time, such as jumping hours or retrograde mechanisms. On demand, the fox shows the hours with its paw while the crow drops the cheese to indicate the minutes.

The modern reinterpretation – Reference 5249R-001

Today, Patek Philippe reinterprets this pocket watch into a wristwatch, which is the first automaton in the manufacture’s contemporary history and a deliciously refined design triggering instant astonishment.

The watch is powered by a movement displaying the hours and minutes on demand. By activating the pusher, the scenery suddenly comes alive, replaying the famous fable by Jean de La Fontaine. Everything is timely orchestrated, as the cunning fox first flatters the crow, who then drops the cheese. At the press of a pusher, the fox first shows the hours with its paw (0 to 6h59) or snout (7 to 11h59), and then the crow drops the piece of cheese to show the minutes. Releasing the pusher, the indicators get back in place.

The sophisticated mechanism is based on a lever that first reads the hours to drive the mechanism to read the minutes. A nice detail, the second wheel is used to rotate a decorative diamond on the dial, the only element always in motion.

The dial and automaton also showcase rare handcrafts. The dial consists of a gold plate on which no fewer than 10 gold hand-engraved appliques in different colours. If some are purely decorative, others are functional, making their manufacturing extremely delicate. Any deformation could disrupt the functioning of the movement. The engraver must therefore take care to measure the pressure exerted on the applique so as not to alter its shape. At their thinnest, the appliques measure only 0.2 millimetres thick.

The reference 5249R comes in a 43mm rose gold case with a Louis XV-type crown. Its design comes in an officer round case with short, straight lugs. Its movement, the 249 31-260 PS HMD AU caliber is derived from the 260 family, the ultra-thin automatic movement with off-centred mini-rotor.

The enchanting Patek Philippe, the Fox and the Crow, reference 5249R-001, is presented on a brown alligator leather strap with a Patek Philippe triple folding clasp. Price is set at CHF 320,000.

For more information, please visit www.patek.com.