Page 109 - Forbes - Asia (December 2019 - January 2020)
P. 109
FORBES LIFE
atek Philippe is known by en- “In our family, we don’t at a faster pace. “We are not Swatch,
thusiasts as one of the watch we cannot just push a button” to boost
industry’s “holy trinity”— just pass the watches production, he says. Aspiring owners
Pthree highly regarded Swiss down the generations. of a Patek must often join waiting lists
watch brands—along with Audemars We pass the whole to buy one. There’s a five- to eight-year
Piguet and Vacheron Constantin. Patek wait, for instance, for a stainless-steel
Philippe, like Audemars Piguet, remains company.” Nautilus model.
independent of the big luxury groups, Stern also says more production
such as Kering, LVMH and Richemont. Philippe handed over control of the would undercut Pateks’ value. “If we
For four generations, it has been owned business. The company employs 1,600 made a million watches per year, do
by the Stern family of Switzerland. staff at its Geneva headquarters and you really think people will still buy
In an exclusive interview with an additional 600 internationally, and them? I don’t think so,” he says. “I have
Forbes Asia during Patek’s recent had estimated 2018 sales of 1.45 billion one vision for Patek, and that is to have
Watch Art Grand Exhibition in Singa- Swiss francs ($1.5 billion). the highest level of quality. Quality and
pore, Patek president Thierry Stern of- Philippe Stern remains as honorary quantity don’t get along. Ask Picasso to
fers a personal take on its famous tag- chairman of the company. “I’m proud reproduce the same picture 20 times—
line: “You never actually own a Patek that during the transition between my- it is not possible, and also, he would
Philippe. You merely look after it for self and my dad, nobody realized [there never do it. It’s the same for Patek.”
the next generation.” Stern’s version? was a change in leadership]. We kept One of Stern’s two teenage sons is
“In our family, we don’t just pass the the same strategies and communica- showing interest in the business. His
watches down the generations. We tion, the same type of product. We kept 16-year-old son has just commenced
pass the whole company,” he says. our soul,” says Stern. studies at a watchmaking school, as Stern
The Watch Art Grand Exhibition Stern has helped maintain Patek’s did in his youth. “He made his own deci-
that brought Stern, 49, to Singapore status as one of the world’s most highly sion, he’s enjoying it,” Stern says. His el-
is the company’s signature event, held prized watches through scarcity. Since dest son, 18, will soon begin studying
on four previous occasions since 2013. the company’s foundation in 1839, hotel management. Stern says he won’t
This one was the largest to date, at 1,800 Patek has been known for its low out- force either into the business. “That’s a
square meters, and marked the first put—annual production now is about huge mistake,” he says. “They have to de-
time the exhibition was held in Asia— 62,000 pieces. One Patek timepiece can cide what they would like to do; I’m not
an indication of Asia’s continued impor- take a year or more to craft. Stern says obliging them. I didn’t have children just
tance for the global luxury watch indus- it would be difficult to create watches so they could take over Patek.” F
try. It is also another demonstration of
the Stern family’s determination to re-
main an independent, family-owned
From left: Patek Philippe Nautilus 3700/1A, Perpetual Calendar Ref. 3940G
business. Early this year, rumors sur- and Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A.
faced that LVMH was considering a bid
for Patek. In January, analysts at Ger-
man investment bank Berenberg esti-
mated that Patek could sell for as much
as €9 billion ($10 billion).
Asked whether he’s received offers
from some big groups, Stern replies,
“Are they interested? I would say ‘yes’.”
Then he adds that these bids reinforce
his determination to stay family-owned.
“That means that you did something Precious Time
SCOTT WOODWARD FOR FORBES ASIA Philippe family in 1932 during the far higher than retail. While not all high-end watches appreciate in price, some Pateks have risen
right. But we are not for sale,” he says.
Buying a secondhand Patek does not require joining a waiting list but resale prices can often be
The Sterns bought Patek from the
sharply in value. A 1970s steel Nautilus, sold for about $3,000 when new, now commands more
Great Depression, when the Philippe
than $60,000. Patek’s perpetual calendar chronographs from the 1980s, sold for around $20,000
at the time, have recently been auctioned from $400,000 to over a million. A very rare, 1950s
family were the original watchmakers
perpetual calendar chronograph in steel, originally priced at $2,200, became the most expensive
and the Sterns a supplier of watch dials
wristwatch ever sold, at more than $11 million in 2016. That sum was eclipsed this November when
to them. Thierry Stern has headed
a one-of-a-kind, steel Grandmaster Chime (a model released in 2014, in a limited edition of seven
pieces, for a price close to $2.5 million) sold for $31 million.
Patek since 2009, when his father
DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020 FORBES ASIA | 105
