Don’t be misled into thinking that it takes eight years to make every Patek Philippe. Of course, the process is very intricate and time consuming, but this time depends on a couple of factors – which model of a Patek is to be made, and how you’re calculating the time.
A Patek Philippe is a collector’s must-have. This is not only because it’s exquisitely made – every luxury watchmaker vouches for it to be true in their case – it’s because a Patek Philippe is by far the best in craftsmanship, design, and of course the heritage.
How long it takes to make a PP?
Patek Philippe watches are made to do more than just tell the time – these are “more like a piece of art,” so once you have worn a PP on your wrist, you’ll never settle for less. So, what actually makes a Patek Philippe so unique?
According to Thierry Stern, the president of Swiss watch company Patek Philippe, ‘it’s the time and detail that goes into making one complex watch movement that sets it apart. In an interview with PhillyMag, Stern said that it can take up to four years to make a simple movement, while the more complicated movement such as the minute repeater can take up to eight years.
The actual timeline
This timeline can be confusing to many – the real production time mentioned by Stern is the duration from idea to actually presenting a new timepiece with a brand new movement inside. This includes the time involved in research, design, prototyping, designing, testing, and so on.
Taking all this elapsed time into consideration, it can take up to eight years to present a new, complicated movement in a Patek Philippe watch. However, once a new reference model is developed for production, thereon only quality check is necessary, but the process is lengthy still.
This is because Patek Philippe makes some highly complicated movements and they are hand finished and assembled, the process that can take a few weeks to ready a simple movement; up to nine months to complete a complicated one; and more complicated tourbillon can up to two years to produce.