If no observation in bold then the information from the seller is either true or unverifiable. Technical datasheet from the TD & truth about each one : Some links to the dictionnary of finish and decoration are scattered in the review, click on them to be redirect in a new window to the correct entry. Mobile user note : this review will be more pleasant if you look at it in landscape mode. Many of their inventions are responsible for the good health of the watch market today and some of their watches are considered as iconic pieces of the watch world, the one we are interested in today is the :Īs usual, the pictures are reduced & cropped to fit the template of the review, I strongly encourage you to click on them to enjoy the full resolution & details.

They are one of the few brands being completely independent from any big group and only employ 220 people. Producing around 70 000 watches per years ( A little over 1 million for Rolex to give you an example), they keep the market for their watches under close control. Today, Patek Philippe is one of the most recognised brands by enthusiasts, with a pretty exclusive market and elite clientele. But we can speculate that Czapek, a very conservative and classical watchmaker wasn't really pleased with the taste for innovation and the constant search of novelty that Philippe brought to the company. It's hard to know what lead to such a history, as right from the start Patek Philippe was aware of what a good public relationship could mean in such a business. In 1845 what was known as Patek, Czapek & Cie ended, and Patek created with Phillippe and a the Polish lawyer and financier Wincenty Gostkwoski the brand Patek & Cie, later renamed Patek Philippe & Cie after the official association of Patek and Phillippe ( formerly only head of watchmaking at Patek & Cie). Patek & Czapek weren't really on the same page when it came to the future of the brand, Czapek was the head of watchmaking while Patek was leading the sales and the company. In 1844 at the Paris Universal Exhibition they met Philippe, freshly awarded for his invention of the first keyless pocket watch, what we know today as the crown winding or manual wind. Unknown of the existence of each other, what is known now as Patek Philippe, started in 1839 with the association of Antoine de Patek and the French watchmaker from Czech origin François Czapek. Then Jean Adrien Philippe, a French watchmaker, son of a watchmaker, that always worked in the watchmaking industry. Patek Phillippe, a serious name when you become interested in the watch world, a serious name made of two separate, first Antoine Norbert de Patek, a Polish national, firstly a soldier in the Polish army ( 1st Mounted Rifles regiment), then after fleeing to France and moving to Switzerland, he started watchmaking.

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