When it comes to watches, none carries the cachet of a Patek Philippe.
Oliver Berry sits down in Truro with the company’s president, Thierry Stern, to talk about inspiration, engineering and why the old ways are still the best.
“I can still remember the day I realised I wanted to be a watchmaker,” recalls Thierry Stern, as he sips his coffee and casts his eye over a glass case filled with glittering wristwatches. “I was six years old. In my dad’s office near Lake Geneva, there were big drawers filled with pocket watches. I remember opening them all the time just because I loved looking at them. That’s where the passion started.”
Patek Philippe has been owned by the Stern family for nearly a century, having acquired it from its founders, Antoine Norbert de Patek and François Czapek, in 1932. Unlike many of their rivals, it remains a family concern: Thierry is the fourth generation Stern to run the business, following his great grandfather, grandfather and father Philippe, who he succeeded in 2009.
Today, he’s in Cornwall as part of a whistle-stop European tour of trusted retailers. The venue is Michael Spiers in Truro, the county’s oldest family-run jeweller, whose relationship with Patek – like most of their retailers – stretches back years. “In business, relationships are everything,” Thierry says. “In many ways, we all belong to one big family.”
Unusually for a man in charge of one of the world’s most prestigious brands, Thierry started on the shop floor. After studying at watchmaking school, he apprenticed alongside Patek’s watchmakers, learning all the painstaking labour that goes into their watches – from machining the springs, hands, cogs and wheels to engraving the dial and assembling the case. That grounding, he explains, enables him to push boundaries in engineering as well as in design.
“Every time a member of the family takes over, he must prove himself,” Thierry says. “A watchmaker has to evolve, to be creative, to push further – in accuracy, but also aesthetics. At Patek, we say that we have a tradition of innovation.”
His practical grounding also taught him about the vital importance of craftsmanship. In any other industry, he explains, the niche skills employed by Patek’s team of craftspeople would have disappeared long ago in the drive for efficiency and cost-cutting. “The most precious thing I have at Patek is the people. They’re the ones who make the company what it is. With shareholders, the thinking is more short term, but at Patek, that’s not how we work. Here, the past is the future.”
In many ways, a Patek Philippe watch is as much a work of art as of craft. Their watches showcase the skills of a bygone age, from enamelling and marquetry to chainsmithing and guilloché (a type of metal engraving), and the company owns more than 100 patents, including ones for its built-in winding mechanism, precision regulator, perpetual calendar and Gyromax balance.
“The aesthetic must be beautiful, of course, but it’s not just about looking nice,” Thierry says. “It’s about preserving the movement. And I will never jeopardise that.” Creating a new model is a long and laborious process. Just 72,000 Patek watches are produced every year: the simplest ones take a minimum of 9 months to make, rising to 2 years or more for complex pieces such as the ‘Grand Complications’.
“Inspiration can come from unexpected places,” he says. “A vintage car, a beautiful house. Often when I’m sleeping, that’s where I have my best ideas. But really, my responsibility is to surprise. I hate to be told something is not possible! You know, let’s try, let’s make a prototype. Maybe we will find a way, or maybe not. That’s how we keep growing.”
Prices start around £14,000, but can easily climb into six figures. The most expensive wristwatch sold at auction was a Patek – a Grandmaster Chime 6300A-010, which fetched 31,000,000 CHF ($31.2 million) in 2019. Allegedly, it required more than 100,000 hours to make.
For Thierry, the real joy of running Patek Philippe, he says, is the freedom to indulge his creative whims, while also making his own contribution to the company’s illustrious legacy. “Every day, we create something that will last,” he says. “Our watches will still be working in 100, 200, even 300 years’ time. That’s the privilege of working here. And for me, it’s the pleasure, too.”
Spoken like a true artisan.