Brand overview
The Patek Philippe Watch Company is one of the best known watch manufacturers. Its watches have a reputation of highly reliable, luxurious, complicated and, of course, beautiful watches. Even the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin has a Calatrava model from Patek Philippe.
This company is a member of the Great Three Companies in the branch, together with Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin. Experts consider these three brands as the best manufacturers of fine mechanical timepieces.
Brand history
Foundation
The year of foundation of the brand, which many collectors know today as Patek Philippe, is 1839. The founder of the famous Swiss company was a Polish Nobleman the name of whom was Count Antoine Norbert de Patek. Being exiled from Poland together with his partner Francois Czapek he started designing timepieces that were produced under the name of Patek, Czapek & Co. This name was kept until 1845. The year marked the leaving of Francois from the partnership.
Later the company was joined by another watchmaker originally from France the name of whom was Jean Adrien Philippe. He was not only a partner of Patek but an inventor as well. Philippe was the one to invent the stem-winding as well as the hand setting mechanism. During the period between 1845 and 1851 the name of the watch-making company was Patek & Co. When Philippe was hired as the partner of Patek the company changed its name to Patek Philippe.
Inventions
The inventions of Philippe helped the company in making high-quality mechanical watches. At this time among the clients there was even Queen Victoria. Patek Philippe became one of the leading companies that created mechanical timepieces in the middle of 19th century. The two watchmakers raised the standards of watch manufacturing to a new level. This was due to their new inventions and technical upgrades such as: free mainspring and sweep seconds hand. The company upgraded chronographs as well as the mechanism of perpetual calendar.
In 1867 Patek Philippe displayed some of its mechanical timepiece at the watch exhibition held in Paris. Its creations included functions that further were to set the standards of mechanical complicated timepieces of the 20th century. Among these functions there were: the perpetual calendar, repeater and one of the most widely used in sports watches – the split-seconds indicator.
Record Breaking
Two mechanical wonders, that are considered to be the most complicated watches, were designed by this brand. The first watch with a very sophisticated movement was made at the beginning of the 20th century and its owner was Henry Graves Jr. The other one was called Calibre 89, which is till nowadays considered the most complicated watch in the world. The name Caliber 89 comes from the year in which this timepiece was created – 1989. This year marked the anniversary of Patek Philippe's 150 years of activity. The watch was made from 1,728 parts able to display 33 complications.
The management of the company changed in 1932. Charles and Jean Stern were the ones to take over Patek Philippe. When the world saw the end of the Second World War, the company opened a new division of electronic watches. In 1950's Patek Philippe pioneered the battery powered technology used in watches. Thus it received several patents and received many awards.
Today Patek Philippe continues to produce both mechanical and quartz watches. Its masters of watch-making, besides producing the traditional mechanical timepieces, design industrial and electronic timekeepers. These show precision timekeeping and are installed in many airports, hospitals and other public locations. Throughout its history the company had such clients like: Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Tchaikovsky.
Recent Collections
People who are already familiar with the Patek Philippe brand are certainly also familiar with the best known collections of the company. The best known collections produced by the brand contain in some way simple watches, which are at the same time wonders of their own.
Such collections as Calatrava, Aquanaut, Gondolo comprise watches made both for men and for women and ever since the founding of the company these collections are being complemented with new and new watches.
There are however collections meant for men and for women in particular. For example the collection Twenty4 has precious metals watches embellished with diamonds. Such gift will be appreciated by any lady. The collections Nautilus and Golden Ellipse are watches made for gentlemen. They combine both classical and sporty style for men who lead an active live as well as for those, who prefer strict classical suits.
See also
External links
Oficial Site - Get familiar with Patek Philippe collections
Mechanical, Quartz Movements and Parallel Technologies - Learn more about mechanical and quartz movements
Platinum Watches - Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph - Description of a platinum made Annual Calendar from Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe "Grande Complication" Watch - Find out more about one of the most complicated wristwatches in the world.
Category
Owner: "lavrov" Last edited on February 9, 2007 12:52 am by "lavrov"
