I just attended the press preview of the Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition at the St Regis hotel in Singapore which will run from 27-31 May 2010. The exhibition is well worth attending, click here for more details.

The preview and press conference was followed by a luncheon. I was fortunate to sit with Philippe Stern instead of being shown to the door as I usually am; the rest of the table was mostly occupied by important journalists like Timmy Tan, Wei Koh and Eddy Koh, editors of TimeWerke, Revolution and World of Watches respectively.

Timmy Tan, Philippe Stern and Wei Koh

The press dining inside the exhibition area  

Because of this fortuitous turn of events I managed to speak with Mr Stern and listen to some of his comments on various topics.

Mr Stern is a rarity in the industry. Many of the personalities in the business are young and professional managers; the boom in watchmaking only began about ten years ago. Mr Stern, on the other hand, is an individual who has watchmaking in his blood. He has not only seen changes in watchmaking from a very high level as the owner and manager of Patek Philippe, but he has been involved since birth. He knows what he is talking about, not just about Patek Philippe but also the industry at large.

The Stern family, who originally ran a dial-making business, acquired Patek Philippe in 1932. Mr Stern spoke about how his father, Henri, began travelling in the forties to seek new markets for high-end watches which were previously bought mostly by royalty and a very narrow segment of society.

Interestingly, Patek Philippe once had an electronics division, set up in 1948, which made electronic clocks for industry and science. It made the first clock with no moving parts in the late fifties. But as Mr Stern noted the division was eventually divested because it diverged from the firm’s focus of making mechanical timepieces and also because of competition, notably from the Japanese.

I posed the well worn auction question to Mr Stern, raising the recent Patek chronograph at auction at sold for over CHF5 million to a “private Geneva museum” – Mr Stern laughed. But he stated specifically that Patek Philippe is no longer frequently active in the auction market, as it was in earlier years when it was building up its collection. However, he did acknowledge the frequent success of the company’s watches at auction is a contributing factor to the firm’s commercial success today.

There was a time though, when “no one wanted them”. Mr Stern says the museum collection began in 1965 when the Stern family started buying vintage timepieces. He gave the amusing example of three watches he purchased years ago, the refs. 2499 and 1518 which are chronographs with perpetual calendars, as well as one more watch which he cannot recall – they cost a grand total of CHF12,000 and he found incredibly expensive at the time. And he also said that the high prices of watches at auction make it difficult to acquire pieces for the museum, even if he wants to.

Vintage ref. 2499 - a true classic and one of my favourite vintage Patek  

Another topic was the new ref. 5950A rattrapante – why steel? “For a change” was his reply; it is important to have something “different”. Also, Patek Philippe has a history of making steel chronographs, and these are sought after due to their relative rarity.

Mr Stern also spoke about the ref. 5004 chronograph. One reason it is an enormously complex watch is because the Lemania base was not designed to accommodate a split seconds function, meaning every component has to be small and tightly packed together. Patek Philippe originally approached Lemania, the maker of the chronograph ebauche, to add a split seconds but Lemania declined citing the difficulty, so Patek went it alone. The new CH29-535 PS movement, on the other hand, is designed for easier addition of complications, which leads me to assume a rattrapante based on the CH29 is highly possible.

The new ref. 5170 with the CH29 

Another complication discussed was the minute repeater. Mr Stern made some interesting comments on the minute repeater wristwatches Patek makes. Platinum is the most popular model, even though it is the worst metal for a repeater due to its density, something Mr Stern tells his customers. But in order to overcome the density of platinum, repeaters cased in platinum are given a high pitch. Mr Stern also mentioned steel and titanium are possible materials for the case of a minute repeater, but the resulting sound is not as different from that produced by gold, and perhaps not as harmonious. And between the various alloys of gold, white, rose and yellow, subtle differences also exist in the sound produced but they are almost negligible.

Minute repeater, ref. 2524, c. 1958/1959  

Mr Stern also gave his thoughts on the trend towards in-house calibres. Most brands are doing that, because of the tight supply of ebauches from movement makers. But he thinks that many brands will make one in-house calibre, which can be used for a base, rather than a range, like Patek Philippe does. And there is a limit to the know-how of any single brand, so there will often be external expertise consulted.

I also asked him a question that he is asked everywhere else – what was on his wrist. It was a ref. 3940J with a yellow dial. It is almost identical to the 25 piece limited edition for Swiss retailer Beyer made in 1985. This lacks the engraving on the caseback and "Beyer" on the dial of the Beyer edition.

3940 Beyer 

The 3940 is of course the first modern and most iconic Patek perpetual, launched in 1985, and based on the ultra-slim cal. 240 (it is 2.4 mm high) developed in the seventies. Mr Stern also said back then no one believed a perpetual could be added to the cal. 240 because it was so slim.

It was a privilege to interact with Mr Stern and I understand why Patek Philippe emphasises it’s a “family watch company”.

- SJX

And here are some photos of a handful of the exquisite watches on display:

New ref. 5960P with blue dial

Ref. 96 Calatrava in platinum, c. 1947

A pair of cloisonne dial watches, "World Map" and "Virgin Forest", c. 1954/1955 an 1957/1958 respectively

Ref. 2497 perpetual calendar, c. 1954/1955 and ref. 2499

Ref. 3448, c. 1967, and ref. 3450, c. 1982

close-ups of ref. 3448 below

And lastly, the Star Calibre 2000