The test of time
UP TO a thousands gears, cogs and springs operating in perfect unison, pieced together by a master watchmaker with a minimum of 20 years experience, and for a mere million euro you could join the two-year waiting list to own one.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Patek Phillippe, where gemstones are not prominently displayed on the case of the watch, but integrated into the mechanism so that it never wears down and maintains its perfect action as the watch is passed from generation to generation.
The current owner of owner of the Swiss manufacturer, Thierry Stern was in Cork recently to open the company’s specialised viewing room in Keane’s jewellers, where for €20,000 you can join the exclusive Patek Phillippe club. There are now as many Patek authorised jewellers in Ireland as in the whole of China — two.
Stern says Irish people have a long tradition of jewellery and good taste in watches.
Despite what it may sound like, these beautiful timepieces are not about gaudy Celtic Tiger displays of wealth. Most are understated and unless you have a keen eye for horology you’d struggle to identify if someone’s wrist has the equivalent of the mortgage on a mansion wrapped around it.
According to Stern, this is the sign of the discerning customers that he sells his pieces to.
“People who are wearing Patek never show it. They are quite discreet, they are people normally who are well educated, they know a lot about watches. They do not need to be show off people.
“They like something to be refined and that is what I mean by status for them it is important to carry something that they enjoy and most of the time they will never show it, but when somebody will tell them, ‘Oh you have a nice Patek’, they would love to talk about it. This is what I like’.”
As Stern talked I couldn’t help but notice his own watch, an unassuming Patek peaking out from under the cuff of his shirt. Not huge or elaborate, no diamonds or gold, but a tasteful brushed silver watch with an intricate square black face.
“You are wearing something very, very rare, it can be very expensive but nobody really knows about it except people who are passionate. It’s quite nice to see when two strangers are talking about the same passion,” he says of his customers.
However, the rise of smartphones as the status symbol of the day surely means the watch as a measure of a man’s worth has become a little bit antiquated.
A quick straw poll of my mates — all in their late 20s — revealed that about 80% of them still wear a watch.
So it’s no real surprise that Stern dismisses the threat posed to his company by the rise of the smart watch.
“It is more than a watch, it can be a status symbol or something that you can receive from your parents. Something that you can keep through time. I’m not sure that is something that you can do with an iWatch or an iPhone you are not going to give one of those to your kids.
“They will say ‘I don’t want it’ or ‘I want the new one’.”
The company is far from being technophobic. They don’t shun innovations and indeed their philosophy is to combine innovation and tradition.
They still handmake the watches.
However, they are now combining the hand-painting of ceramic faces with parts that are half the width of a human hair or, in other words, on a nano scale.
The skills involved in making the watches are so rare that for each model there are only about two people in the world who can build them.
Which is why Stern says that it doesn’t matter who you are — royal, celebrity or low born — you will have to wait to get your hands on a new Patek.
“It is normal for people for people to have to wait for up to two years for some of our watches.
“There is just a few people working on these. There is one, a 51/31 — it’s a timezone watch with an enamel dial — there are only two people who are able to make them to the my level of quality, et voila, they have to sleep and eat, so that’s why you have to wait two years. It’s not even a matter of price it’s a matter of time,” he said.
While their products may count time, as it passes they also increase in value. One Patek Philippe has become the most expensive watch ever sold.
The Henry Graves Supercomplication was sold at auction by Sothebys for $11m in 1999 to a member of the Qatari royal family, Sheik Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani.
However, last year he had to pledge the watch back to Sothebys to cover an outstanding debt.
When I ask Stern should I buy one of his watches now, he tells me I am too young.
“For you first you need to get the car, then the apartment, then the wife, then the children and then the Patek.”
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