Patek Philippe’s big bet on the future

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Patek Philippe’s big bet on the future - Newsletter
2 minutes read
A two-part interview with Thierry Stern, Officine Panerai in the spotlight and the finer details of the “grenage” finish.

After a weekend of bracing Swiss alpine air in anticipation of the bi-annual “Glacier Patrol” mountaineering race, sponsored by TAG Heuer, which was unfortunately cancelled at the last minute, it’s back to work for a week full of interesting watch news, starting today with an interview with Thierry Stern. So voluble was the discussion, in fact, that I was reluctant to cut the interview and decided instead to publish it over two days. In today’s first instalment Thierry Stern discusses the impact of the brand’s massive 175th anniversary celebrations and selected models from the 2016 collection, while in tomorrow’s second part he looks at the future – in particular the huge new Patek Philippe building on which construction started in Plan-les-Ouates last year.

« Ce mois-ci, gagnez une montre Eterna pour dames »

Further interviews come later this week as Isabelle Guignet speaks to Chronoswiss owner Oliver Ebstein and Kurt Kupper, the CEO of traditional music box and automaton manufacturer Reuge. She also reports on a visit to the Officine Panerai factory in Neuchâtel, while Olivier Müller looks back on 80 years of the brand’s Radiomir model. 

As part of our reviews of the 2016 watch collections we cover those of Romain Gauthier and Urban Jürgensen (among others) this week. The new models from these two niche brands are characterised by the grenage finish on their dials, yet the end results are diametrically opposed in terms of their aesthetic. Find out why, and find out more about this rare dial finishing technique, later this week. 

The first high-end watch brand to be relaunched thanks to crowdfunding, Czapek & Cie., has been in the news over the past couple of weeks. The story of the revival of the Czapek name was covered in a documentary on TV channel Fashion One last week (which you can watch in three parts on WorldTempus, starting here). Marrying the latest trends with historic watchmaking traditions, the brand has just announced that its first 188 timepieces will be available on subscription this year, reviving a concept that was first started by none other than Abraham-Louis Breguet.

Don’t forget that this week is your last chance to enter this month’s competition to win a Baume & Mercier Capeland Shelby® Cobra 1963 Competition watch. As of next Sunday you will have the chance to win an altogether different prize in our May competition. Find out more in next Monday’s newsletter.

 

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