PHILIPPE PATEK – a brief reminder of history

On May 1, 1839, the Patek, Czapek & Cie. watch manufactory was founded in Geneva by two Polish emigrants, businessman and nobleman Antoni Norbert de Patek and watchmaker Franciszek Czapek. The company was headquartered at Quai des Bergues 29. However, due to differences of opinion between the founders, the cooperation did not last long. Patek chose instead, as a new partner, the talented French watchmaker Jean-Adrien Philippe. This enriched the history of watches with one of the most revolutionary inventions, the mechanism for winding watches with a crown. Since then, watches no longer need to be wound with an additional key. On May 15, 1845, after Jean-Adrien Philippe and Wincenty Gostkowski joined, the company was renamed Patek & Cie..In the same year, Patek & Cie. produces its first watch with a minute repeater. On January 1, 1851, Patek & Cie changed its name to Patek Philippe & Co. In 1881, Philippe applied for a patent for a precise gait regulator. On February 1, 1901, Patek Philippe was transformed into a joint stock company and renamed Ancienne Manufacture d’Horlogerie Patek Philippe & Cie. SA. In 1902, a patent for a double chronograph was registered. In 1925, the world’s first wristwatch with a perpetual calendar appeared. In 1927, the first wrist chronographs were produced. When the company was looking for a financially strong investor in 1931 due to the world economic crisis, brothers Charles and Jean Stern, whose factory was for a time one of the company’s suppliers, agreed to take a majority stake. Since then, the name of the Stern family has been mentioned in one breath with Patek Philippe. Today Philippe Stern is the third generation to serve as chairman of the company. Thierry Stern, his son, already represents the fourth generation as vice president. In 1932, the company unveiled the Calatrava model, named after the knightly order founded in 1158 by Abbot Raimondo in the town of Calatrava. This series of models has been one of the manufactory’s classics ever since. The Calatrava cross is still considered a trademark of the watches, which is depicted on the crown. Series production of chronographs and perpetual calendar wristwatches began in the early 1940s. Since then, Patek Philippe mechanisms have won numerous precision competitions organized by the Geneva Observatory.