Patek Philippe

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Tradition as a compromise

I apologize for replying so late.

It isn’t really intuitive to speak of "tradition" for an industrial product, so the question raised by our clever moderator, Jerome, seems interesting.

Given that "tradition" has nothing to do with "vintage", I believe that the Patek Philippe approach to the issue is unavoidably a compromise, sometimes successful, sometimes less.

Imho, PP has to face the following compromises:

- Between being a large company and being a niche manufacturer.

- Between its goal of profitability and the customers’ expectation about quality products; in other words, it means trying to assure itself a stable and sustainable economic future and to assure their products a long life.

- Between investments in innovations (both technical and aesthetical) and investments in memory, especially through the establishment and maintenance of their wonderful Museum.

- Between the excellence in perpetuating obsolete styles and technologies and the risks involved in innovative styles and technologies.

- Between modern proposals, with a major focus on new markets and new potential customers and a highly recognizable and personal style as well as a strict vision of the long term brand positioning.

- Between being in the higher market segment (the one where products are expensive, complicated and with an high added value in terms of image and - especially - technic) and the ability to offer serious products that really works.

I think that the Stern family has proven to be more than capable in dealing with these compromises, so I can say I love Patek Philippe watches for their tradition. Of course, it’s not all sunshine and roses. I’m referring for example to certain bad and disturbing commercial policies that have been widely discussed in the forum. That said, my opinion is that the PP products are always respectable, even those pink or green or yellow dials on ladies' Aquanauts.

Thank you for reading, ciao!