Okay, here’s the blog post about my experience remaking the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse 5738R, written in the style you requested:
So, I got this crazy idea to try and remake a Patek Philippe watch. You know, the fancy ones that cost more than my car? Yeah, one of those. Specifically, the Golden Ellipse 5738R. I saw one online listed for like $39,014 – insane, right? But it got me thinking, could I make something that looked just as good for way, way less?
First, I started digging around for info on this thing. I found out the design is based on some old-school math stuff called the “golden section” that the ancient Greeks came up with. It’s all about proportions, like a ratio of 1 to 1.6181, which they called “divine”. Sounds pretty high-brow for a watch, but whatever, it looked cool, and I wanted to copy it.
Next, I had to figure out what materials to use. I saw a bunch of listings on those watch trading sites. The real one’s got a black dial and a solid rose gold case. Some of the new ones, for the 50th anniversary, even have a fancy metal bracelet made of a bunch of tiny links. I wasn’t about to go that hard, but I definitely wanted to mimic the rose gold look. For example, the listing has a beautiful picture, that I can refer * original one is made in 2024, so the craft is really amazing.
I started by drawing up some plans. I’m no artist, but I managed to sketch out the basic shape of the watch face and case. Then, I measured everything like ten times to make sure I got the proportions right. I even made a cardboard cutout to see how it would look on my wrist. Felt kinda silly, but it helped!
For the case, I found some cheap metal online, I think that is brass with a rose gold finish. It wasn’t perfect, but it had the right color. I used a tiny saw and some files to shape it, and let me tell you, it took forever. My hands were killing me by the end!
The dial was tricky. I ended up printing out a picture of the real one and carefully cutting it out. I glued it onto a thin piece of metal and then, very carefully, glued that into the case. The hands were a whole other story. I ended up using some thin wire that I bent into shape. They weren’t perfect, but hey, they moved!
Then,I spent days polishing the case, trying to get it to shine like the real deal. I even added a fake little crown on the side, just for show. The finishing is quite important as the original one.
Finally, I put it all together. And you know what? It didn’t look half bad! Sure, it wasn’t a real Patek Philippe, and it definitely wouldn’t fool a watch expert, but it looked pretty darn close to the pictures I’d seen online. The dimension is about 34.539.5 mm, just like the original one.
I wore it around for a few days, and a couple of people even asked me about it. I just laughed and told them it was a “special edition.” It was a fun project, and it taught me a lot about watchmaking. Would I do it again? Probably not. It was a ton of work! But it was definitely an experience. And now I have a pretty cool-looking watch that didn’t cost me a fortune.
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