Is Cubitus the new Nautilus?

Since 2021, when Patek Philippe discontinued its best-selling Ref. 5711 and began phasing out certain Nautilus references, fans of the Swiss brand have been wondering whether another sports model would come down the Patek pipeline.

Their wait ended Oct. 17, when Patek Philippe unveiled Cubitus, a sporty wristwatch line and the brand’s first entirely new collection in 25 years. (The Aquanaut dates from 1997 and the Twenty-4, a women’s line, from 1999.)

The angular Cubitus is now the new face of Patek Philippe’s sports watches, marking the end of an era in which the distinctive porthole shape of the Nautilus, introduced in 1976 by the renowned designer Gerald Genta, defined the brand’s luxury sport watches. It joins Patek’s sporty lineup, including 28 Nautilus and 20 Aquanaut models.

“I always wanted a square watch in the collections,” Thierry Stern, the company’s president, said before a group of journalists at the unveiling of the watch, held in Munich at the headquarters of Deutsche Patek Philippe, the company’s German affiliate. “But there was always something off about them. They were too thick, or they sat uncomfortably on the wrist.”

While Cubitus has a 45-millimeter case (measured diagonally across what is actually an octagon), its time and date version is just 8.3 millimeters (0.3 inches) thick while the model with complications comes in at 9.6 millimeters.

“There were many ways we could have designed the new watch, but in the end, I wanted a design that aligned with the DNA of the Nautilus and Aquanaut,” Mr. Stern said, adding that Cubitus was six years in production, with four of those years focused on its design.