Patek Philippe SA () is a Swiss luxury watchmaker and clock manufacturer located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the company has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland and remains the last family-owned independent watch manufacturer in Geneva. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Patek Philippe is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious watch manufacturers in the world. As of July 2023, among the world's top ten most expensive watches ever sold at auctions, nine were Patek Philippe watches. In particular, Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 currently holds the title of the most expensive watch (and wristwatch) ever sold at auction (US$31 million/27 million CHF), while the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication, the world's most complicated mechanical watch until 1989, currently holds the title of the most expensive pocket watch ever sold at auction (US$24 million/21 million CHF).
History
Early history The company traces its origins to the mid-19th century, when Polish watchmaker Antoni Patek and his Czech-born Polish business partner Franciszek Czapek formed Patek, Czapek & Cie in Geneva on 1 May 1839 and started manufacturing pocket watches. The two eventually separated due to disagreements, and the company was liquidated on 18 April 1845. At that point, Czapek founded Czapek & Cie on 1 May 1845 with a new partner, Juliusz Gruzewski. Subsequently, Patek was joined by French watchmaker Adrien Philippe, the inventor of the keyless winding mechanism (although this had been discovered previously by Abraham Louis Breguet but not patented by him), and continued the watchmaking business with a new company, Patek & Cie, beginning on 15 May 1845.
On 1 January 1851, the company's name was officially changed to Patek, Philippe & Cie. In the same year, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom acquired a keyless pendant watch at the Great Exhibition in London. The watch was embellished with rose-cut diamonds set in the pattern of a bouquet of flowers. The Queen had another exclusive Patek Philippe timepiece, to be worn pinned to clothing. This watch was suspended from a diamond and enamel brooch.Cf. Patek Philippe website official history timeline Timepieces for Royalty – 1850-1910 by Patek Philippe , Geneva : Patek Philippe Museum, 2005. In 1868, Patek Philippe created the first Swiss wristwatch for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary.
In 1875, Adrien Philippe commissioned a watch that he later gave to his daughter Louise as a wedding present, which is known as the only wristwatch to be owned by either Patek or Philippe. This historical watch is known as “The Watchmaker’s Daughter” and was auctioned in 2023 by the descendants of Adrien Philippe. The watch was purchased most probably by the Patek Philippe Museum though this is not confirmed and may be owned by a private collector. The wedding between Louise Philippe and Joseph Antoine Bénassy where the watch was presented is noted as the wedding that helped Patek Philippe survive the founding generation by providing the company with a successor to Antoni Patek.
In March 1877, Antoni Patek died at the age of 65, but his only son, Léon Mecyslas Vincent Patek, did not join the business. As a result, Joseph Antoine Bénassy-Philippe, one of Adrien Philippe's sons-in-law, succeeded to Antoni Patek's position. In 1887, the cross of one of the four Military Orders of Spain, the Order of Calatrava, became the registered company logo of Patek Philippe as a sympathetic allusion to the still-extant order of Catholic knights that fought the Muslims in the Crusades. In 1891, the 76-year-old Adrien Philippe handed over his position in the business to his youngest son, Joseph Emile Philippe, together with François Antoine Conty. Adrien Philippe died in January 1894.
Company restructuring In year 1901 saw the transformation of Patek Philippe into a joint-stock company, Ancienne Manufacture d'horlogerie Patek, Philippe & Cie, Société Anonyme, initiated by J. A. Bénassy-Philippe and Joseph E. Philippe. Still being run as a family business, Patek Philippe then had seven shareholders, five of whom formed the board of directors with J. A. Bénassy-Philippe being the chairman. Joseph E. Philippe's son later joined the company, and he was the last offspring of the founders in the business. In 1915, Albert Einstein ordered a gold pocket watch from Patek Philippe; in that year, he completed his Theory of General Relativity.
Current ownership and leadership
Since 1932, the Stern family of Switzerland has owned Patek Philippe, when Charles Stern and Jean Stern acquired the company during the Great Depression. The Stern brothers' company, Fabrique de Cadrans Stern Frères, had been a business partner of Patek Philippe as its supplier of watch dials. In 1935, Patek Philippe was brought to American markets by New York-based Henri Stern Watch Agency, where it was sold as a sister brand alongside Universal Genève.
In 1958, Henri Stern, the son of Charles Stern, became the president of Patek Philippe. Alan Banbery, who previously designed Universal's "Compax" movements and worked as a horologist for London's Garrard & Co, would take on the position of Director of Sales in 1965 and later authored official reference books on vintage Patek Philippe pocket watches and chronographs.
In 1993, Philippe Stern, the son of Henri Stern, became the president. He initiated the publication of the twice-a-year Patek Philippe Magazine in 1996, which is reserved for the watch owners and has received contributions from various prominent writers including Nobel Laureates Gao Xingjian and José Saramago.
In 2009, Philippe Stern's son, Thierry Stern, took over the reins from his father. In 2010, the company produced 40,000 timepieces and, according to Thierry Stern, it produced 58,000 pieces in 2017.KPMG, "Standing the Test of Time", pp.16-18, in Consumer Currents, Issue 5, 2008, KPMG International In 2018, the number went up to 62,000, and in order to maintain quality and exclusivity, Patek Philippe would only slowly increase the number of timepieces produced each year (by 1-3 percent per year) but with a ceiling. Currently, the company is an active member of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH.
There have been four presidents since the Stern family acquisition in 1932:
Charles Stern (1932–1958) Henri Stern (1958–1993) Philippe Stern (1993–2009) Thierry Stern (2009–present)
Motto and slogan One of Patek Philippe's company slogans is "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation." The slogan was introduced when the company launched its "Generations" campaign in 1996.
Watch manufacturing
Patek Philippe manufactures its own watch components. Like other Swiss manufacturers, the company produces mostly mechanical movements with automatic or manual winding mechanism, but has also been producing quartz watches. In fact, Patek Philippe was one of the twenty Swiss watch companies that founded the Centre Electronique Horloger and collaboratively developed the first Swiss quartz movements, such as the Beta 21 movement (1969) which was used by several manufacturers in their watches. In the 1950s, the company even produced a prototype for a mechanical digital wristwatch, Ref. 3414.
Patek Philippe popularized complications such as perpetual calendar, split-seconds hand, chronograph, and minute repeater in mechanical watches. In 2009, the company announced that all of its future mechanical timepieces would be imprinted with the Patek Philippe Seal which requires a precision of -3/+2 seconds per day for diameters no less than 20mm and -5/+4 seconds per day for diameters less than 20mm, surpassing the highest industry standard of watch manufacturing and thus abandoning the Geneva Seal.
In December 2018, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a report assigning environmental ratings for 15 major watch manufacturers and jewelers in Switzerland. Patek Philippe was given the lowest environmental rating as "Latecomers/Non-transparent", suggesting the manufacturer has taken few actions addressing the impact of its manufacturing activities on the environment and climate change.
Notable inventions and patents Patek Philippe has invented over 20 basic calibres and has received over 100 patents. The following are some of the important contributions from Patek Philippe to the watchmaking industry.
In 1845, patented keyless winding and hand-setting system, which received a bronze medal at the 1844 Industrial Exposition in Paris. In 1868, created the first Swiss wristwatch. In 1881, patented its precision regulator. In 1889, patented perpetual calendar mechanism for pocket watches. In 1902, patented double chronograph. In 1916, produced the world's first lady’s wristwatch with complication (No. 174 603, a five-minute repeater). In 1923, launched the world's first split-second chronograph wristwatch (No. 124 8244). In 1925, created the world's first perpetual calendar wristwatch (No. 97 975), with a compact movement for pendant watches created in 1898. In 1933, created the Henry Graves Supercomplication, the most complicated mechanical watch in the world (24 complications) until 1989. In 1941, launched the first serially produced perpetual calendar chronograph the Ref. 1518 In 1949, patented the Gyromax balance. In 1956, created the world's first all-electronic clock which, in 1958, received the "Award for Miniaturization” in New York. In 1962, a tourbillon movement achieved the world's still-unbeaten timekeeping precision record for mechanical watches at Geneva Observatory. In 1986, patented the secular perpetual calendar with retrograde date indication. In 1989, created the Calibre 89, the most complicated mechanical watch in the world (33 complications) until 2015. In 1996, patented annual calendar mechanism and introduced the first annual calendar model Ref. 5035. In 2003/05, launched the annual calendar Ref. 5250, being the world's first watch with silicon-based (the Silinvar alloy) escapement wheel. In 2006, introduced the silicon-based Spiromax balance spring. In 2008, introduced the Pulsomax silicon-based escapement. In 2011, introduced the Oscillomax ensemble, combining the Spiromax balance spring, the Pulsomax escapement, and the GyromaxSi balance. In 2014, created the Grandmaster Chime Ref. 5175, one of the world's most complicated wristwatches (20 complications).
Notable models Most expensive pieces
Patek Philippe timepieces have repeatedly fetched high prices in auctions worldwide. As of 2023, among the world's top ten most expensive watches ever sold at auctions, nine were Patek Philippe watches. Among the top 58 most expensive watches sold at auction (over 2 million US dollars), 46 are Patek Philippe watches. A small part of the demand for auction pieces is driven by Patek Philippe themselves, as they are purchasing in the auction market to add to the collection of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.Clerizo, Michael, "Watch Auctions: Time-Honored: With their mystique, brands like Patek Philippe can command hundreds of thousands of dollars at watch auctions", The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2010Frank, Robert, "All That Glitters May Not Be Gold", The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2007