Patek Philippe Geschichte der Manufaktur ab 1839 - Sammler-Uhren

Patek Philippe History of the Manufactory from 1839

May 29, 2025

Patek Philippe is a watch manufacturer headquartered in Geneva , Switzerland . The family-owned company produces mechanical wristwatches in the luxury segment .

History and development

The watch manufacturer was founded in 1839 by the Polish nobleman Antoine Norbert de Patek (born as Antoni Norbert Patek) and the Czech watchmaker François Czapek (born as František Čapek in 1811 in Jaroměř-Semonice , Königgrätzer Kreis , Bohemia ) in Geneva under the name Patek, Czapek & Co. The collaboration between Patek and Czapek ended in 1845, and Czapek then founded his own company , Czapek & Co., which existed until 1869.

Francois Czapek - Swiss watchmaker of Czech-Polish descent.

Franciszek Czapek (Czech: František Čapek, French: François Czapek) was a watchmaker, and partner of Antoni Norbert Patek de Prawdzic in Patek, Czapek & Co. .

Czapek was a naturalized Pole of Czech descent. He was born on April 4, 1811 , in Semonice (now part of Jaroměř), Bohemia. He was the son of Jan Czapek and Catherine Walaschek.

Franciszek participated in the Polish November Uprising as a soldier in the National Guard in Warsaw. On July 1, 1832 , he arrived in Geneva, where he changed his name to François Czapek.

Shortly thereafter, he founded the company Czapek & Moreau, together with a certain Moreau from Versoix. On October 22, 1836 , he married Marie Gevril de Carouge, the daughter of the watchmaker Jonas Pierre François Gevril de Carouge (1777-1854 ), in Versoix. On May 1, 1839 , he founded the watchmaking company Patek, Czapek & Co. in Geneva with the businessman and nobleman Antoine Norbert, Count de Patek , and a third business partner, presumably Mr. Moreau.

Paragraph 5 of the agreement stated that Czapek received 100 francs a month, and the profits were to be divided equally among the three partners. During the company's first fourteen months, it appears that Patek and Czapek worked alone, perhaps assisted by one or two workers.

They purchased blank movements, called "blancs," and watch cases from specialized manufacturers. Czapek was the finisher, meaning he was responsible for finishing, fitting, casing, and final inspection. As of July 1840, the company employed half a dozen workers. Several were Poles: Lilpop of Warsaw, Henryk Majewski of Lwów, Siedlecki , and Friedlein of Kraków.

About 200 Watches were produced in 2008. However, due to differences between the two, the collaboration was discontinued; the partnership lasted only 6 years.

In 1845, Antoine de Patek and Jean Adrien Philippe founded the company Patek & Co. with Vincent Gostkowski and renamed it Patek Philippe & Co. in 1851. In 1901, the company Ancienne Manufacture d'Horlogerie Patek Philippe & Co. was founded with a capital of 1.6 million Swiss francs . ^{[ 3 ]}

Patek Philippe is considered the inventor of the winding crown . This mechanism fundamentally changed the way watches were used at the time, eliminating the need for an extra key to wind the movement or set the time.

In the wake of the global economic crisis of 1929, the entrepreneurs Charles and Jean Stern acquired a majority stake in the Patek Philippe SA joint-stock company. The Stern family has owned the Patek Philippe SA watch manufacturer since 1932. In the same year, the Model 96 wristwatch was introduced. It has been produced almost unchanged to this day. Under the leadership of Jean Pfister, the manufacture of its own movements began in 1933. In 1953, Patek Philippe launched the manufacturer's first wristwatch with an automatic rotor winding mechanism. The manufacturer has always produced complicated wristwatches and pocket watches with so-called complications . In 1955, Patek Philippe introduced the Gyromax, a fine-adjusting device for the balance wheel . ^{[ 4 ]} ^{[ 5 ]}

In addition to complicated watches, Patek Philippe has also been producing one of the thinnest automatic calibers, measuring just 2.40 millimeters, since 1977. In this respect, Patek is surpassed only by Jean Lassale of Bouchet-Lassale (caliber 2000: 2.08 mm), whose patents were acquired by Nouvelle Lémania in 1982 and whose movements were used in watches by Piaget and Vacheron Constantin (as caliber VC1170).

Patek Philippe's trademark is the Calatrava cross, which is depicted on the winding crown. To mark the 175th anniversary, the Grandmaster Chime wristwatch was released, a grande complication with an acoustic date display via the striking mechanism and a minute repeater alarm function . Production in the Geneva suburb of Plan-les-Ouates is 55,000 watches per year. In 1989, to mark the 150th anniversary, Patek Philippe presented the world's most complicated pocket watch, the Caliber 89, with 33 complications and 1,366 individual parts. ^{[ 6 ]} ^{[ 7 ]} ^{[ 8 ]}

Thierry Stern has been in charge of Patek Philippe since 2009. Thierry Stern is the fourth generation to lead the Geneva-based family business. ^{[ 9 ]}

A new production building was completed in 2019. With approximately 2,400 employees worldwide, Patek Philippe generated sales of €1.53 billion in 2021, according to an estimate by LuxeConsult ^{[ 10 ]} and Morgan Stanley . Distribution is carried out through 367 authorized retailers spread across 67 countries. ^{[ 11 ]}

For decades, the watch manufacturer ’s advertising slogan has been:

"A Patek Philippe never belongs to you alone. You enjoy it for a lifetime, but you are actually saving it for the next generation."

In spring 2023, "The Imperial Patek Philippe" (Reference 96 Quantieme Lune) of the last Emperor of China, Puyi , was auctioned at Phillips in Hong Kong for 6.2 million US dollars. ^{[ 12 ]}

Important watch models

nautilus

In 1976, Patek Philippe introduced the Nautilus model as a sports watch. The first watch was the steel model 3700-1A. The designer of the Nautilus, Gérald Charles Genta , was a trained jewelry designer. ^{[ 13 ]} The waterproof sports watch represented a contrast to the company's strategy of building small and thin watches at the time and became a successful product. Production was discontinued in 2021. ^{[ 14 ]}