Poached maison, in watchmaking, they have a name that alone is able to close a conversation between aficionados of luxury watches, putting a full stop. Patek Philippe it is part of this very small group.
The Geneva-based company can rightly be considered the reference in luxury watchmaking. He produced the most complicated watches in history, he made, with the case Calatrava, perhaps the purest form of the timepiece, built the first Swiss wristwatch, created the first split-seconds chronograph… His successes are countless.
Patek Philippe was born in 1839, from an association of Antoine Norbert de Patek e Francois Czapek. After a few years, he leaves the Czapek company and enters it Jean Adrien Philippe, inventor in 1844 of the winding crown: the mechanism, still in use today, which integrates, in a single crown linked to the watch, the functions of winding and setting the time, replacing the previous winding keys that always risked being lost or introducing dirt and moisture into the watch.
In 1851, the company took the current name of Patek, Philippe & Cie –Fabricants à Genève. Here begins the use of a brand that remains etched in the memory of anyone who approaches even just by hearsay to the world of watches.
After making the first Swiss wristwatch - the absolute primacy is Breguet in Paris, but that's another story ... - destined for Countess Koscowitz of Hungary, after having patented the perpetual calendar, after having built the first split-seconds chronograph both pocket and wrist, and has proven skilled even in making astronomical complications, with the Packard, Patek Philippe it suffers, like many other companies, the effects of the 1929 crisis.
In 1932, the already prestigious house was taken over by Stern family, still owner of the company property. The acquisition immediately gave new life to the maison, with the introduction of a solution aimed at bringing quality to an ever wider audience Patek Philippe: in the same year that the Sterns come into possession of Patek Philippe in fact, the cash register is launched Calatrava, destined to great successes and still today a symbol of luxury watchmaking, as well as of Patek Philippe same.
The supercomplicated "Graves", the Gyromax hairspring, the first electronic watch, the patent for the time zone watch, the world record in precision for a mechanical watch from 1962 - still undefeated -, the secular perpetual calendar with retrograde date, the impressive caliber 89, which is the most complicated watch in the world… There is no field of watchmaking in which Patek Philippe has not left his mark.
Ma Patek Philippe it's not just big complications and technical innovation. The style of the mAison Genevan is just as appreciated as its mechanical mastery. In addition to the aforementioned cash desk Calatrava, just think of the two great creations Patek Philippe sign Gerald genta: the timeless Nautilus and the essential and very elegant Golden Ellipse. The story of Patek Philippe it is also a story of good taste and artistic quality.
To sum it up in one sentence Patek Philippe, it is perhaps right to refer to one of his well-known advertising campaigns: «The things you love are never completely possessed. They are simply kept and handed down ». Patek Philippe perfectly embodies the ideal of perpetuity of the mechanical watch, to be passed on to future generations.