Prestigious Patek Philippe

fashion401

Shopping Cart: 0 Items in cart

The mid 1800s witness a busy watch-making time in Switzerland. The Company known today as Patek Philippe was founded in Geneva in 1839,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], by an exiled Polish Nobleman,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Count Antoine Norbert de Patek and his compatriot Francois Czapek. The earliest watches were signed Patek, Czapek & co. until 1845 when Czapek left the partnership. And in 1851 a Frenchman officially became associated with the brand which was then renamed Patek Philippe.
Philippe brought stem winding and hand-setting mechanisms to Patek's high quality watches. The pair was an instant success and they sold their watches to prominent clients including Queen Victoria of England. They earned a reputation of excellence as a result of innovative engineering advances including enhanced regulators and chronographs, and a perpetual calendar mechanism.
Thus far, Patek Philippe can claim two world-renowned accomplishments. The first was a watch made exclusively for Henry Graves Jr., a New York financier. The watch took three years to design and five years to produce. Graves and long-time competitor James Ward Park commissioned Patek Philippe to create a watch with the most complications. Complications are functions of the watch in addition to hours,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], seconds and minutes. After Graves died in 1953, the watch was sold to Time Museum. When the museum closed, the watch was auctioned through Sotheby's and sold to an anonymous collector for $11 million.
The second watch, known as the world's most complicated watch ever created, was completed in 1989. It was a pocketwatch and it celebrated Patek Philippe's 150th anniversary. The watch was called Caliber 89,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and featured 33 functions and 1,728 individual parts.
Nowadays, vintage Patek Phillippe watches are favored collectible items by watch collectors, and their values tend to rise each year. From the beginning, Patek Philippe produced watches that were a marvel of precision engineering, look and design. Are you ready to pay for such high quality piece?