Volcanoes give Patek Philippe's enamellers what they most want from a subject: a reason to use saturated colour without it looking arbitrary. Fuego erupts almost continuously, and the dial takes the orange of the lava against the grey of the ash cloud, which in cloisonné means two enamels of very different opacity meeting along a wire. Translucent orange over a reflective ground behaves differently in the kiln from opaque grey, and firing them together on one dial is the difficulty the reference is built around.

The white gold case measures 34.5 mm, the Golden Ellipse shape providing an unbroken field for the scene. The volcano is executed in cloisonné enamel, the wires drawing the cone, the plume and the lava flows before any colour is laid. A self-winding movement drives hours and minutes only. The watch is completed on an alligator strap. Patek Philippe shows the Rare Handcrafts pieces together once a year, and volcano dials have become one of the recurring themes collectors watch for in that presentation.

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