From 10 to 25 June 2023, this unprecedented event saw some 60,000 visitors immersing themselves in the world of the last independent family-owned Genevan watch manufacture, in a decor of more than 2,500 square meters transporting them to Geneva and taking them behind the scenes of Patek Philippe itself. The largest exhibition ever organized by the manufacture, this event was accompanied by the launch of six limited editions, including two technical timepieces making their global debut, and a rich collection of pieces showcasing the rare handcrafts. Patek Philippe is pleased to announce that its next grand exhibition will take place in Milan in 2025.
After Dubai in 2012, Munich in 2013, London in 2015, New York in 2017 and Singapore in 2019, Patek Philippe chose Tokyo for the sixth of its grand exhibitions across the world. Historically, Japan represents a key market for the brand – a market of connoisseurs, treasuring rare handcrafts and able to appreciate all the technical excellence and painstaking workmanship contained in a timepiece. Japanese customers, born into a culture that unites respect for tradition with avant-garde spirit, are also perfectly placed to understand the “tradition of innovation” that has guided Patek Philippe since 1839.
In keeping with the previous exhibitions, the grand exhibition “Watch Art” Tokyo 2023 was held in a place emblematic of the host city. It took over the Sankaku Hiroba (“triangular plaza”) event space at the foot of the Shinjuku Sumitomo skyscraper. The space takes the form of a vast hall measuring some 3,200 square meters, covered by a massive glass roof rising to 25 meters at its highest point without internal supporting columns. In this area bathed in natural light, Patek Philippe created a decor of more than 2,500 square meters – the largest ever conceived for a grand exhibition – conjuring up the streets of Geneva and that city’s lakeside setting, including the famous Flower Clock. The exhibition, divided into ten themed rooms, invited the visitor on a voyage of discovery through the Patek Philippe universe, including all the brand’s most renowned Geneva sites – the historic headquarters in the rue du Rhône, the manufacture at Plan-les-Ouates and the Patek Philippe Museum – as if he or she had magically stepped over the 10,000 kilometers separating Geneva from Tokyo.
The grand exhibition “Watch Art” Tokyo 2023 brought together almost 500 timepieces and objects illustrating a wealth of different types of expertise. In particular, visitors could admire the manufacture’s entire current collection, with its lavish choice of watch families and models for men and for women, spanning every watchmaking segment from the style icons to the most technically complex mechanisms. A generous place was accorded to the complicated watches, one of the manufacture’s strongholds, with – for the first time in a grand exhibition – a section exclusive to the super-complications and a space entitled “Master of Sound” showcasing the chiming watches. One room presented the vast collection of movements designed and built entirely by Patek Philippe, with an area devoted to the steps involved in producing the parts and another dedicated to research and development. Visitors also had the chance to meet Patek Philippe master watchmakers, who carried out demonstrations on a variety of movements.
The rare handcrafts meticulously preserved by Patek Philippe (including miniature painting on enamel, Grand Feu cloisonné enamel, hand engraving, micro wood marquetry, hand-executed guilloché work and gemsetting) were also on show, with a splendid array of 40 one-of-a-kind pieces and limited editions (dome clocks, table clocks, pocket watches and wristwatches) inspired by Japanese culture, with its rich artistic repertoire and ancestral skills, along with demonstrations by artisans and a presentation of exceptional pieces lent by their Japanese owners for the event.
The exhibition was also a unique opportunity to discover a selection of some 190 pieces belonging to the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva and exceptionally allowed to travel for the Tokyo event. Those from the “Antique Collection” (sixteenth to early nineteenth century) included some of the oldest watches in the world and numerous masterpieces illustrating the entire history of horology. The pieces from the “Patek Philippe Collection” offered a panorama of the Genevan manufacture’s rich heritage since 1839, whether from a technical or an aesthetic viewpoint. A room entitled “Historical Owners” invited visitors to admire timepieces that had belonged to famous patrons such as Queen Victoria.
Similarly to its predecessors, the grand exhibition “Watch Art” Tokyo 2023 was accompanied by the launch of several limited editions showcasing fields in which the manufacture excels. Featuring among these six new introductions were two technical pieces making their global debut: a new self-winding Quadruple Complication with a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph and an instantaneous perpetual calendar in apertures (Reference 5308P-010) and the first World Time watch endowed with a date display synchronized with local time (Reference 5330G-010). The choice was completed by an exclusive version of the World Time Minute Repeater, its dial center adorned with a Grand Feu cloisonné enamel decoration representing the historic district of Chuo in central Tokyo (Reference 5531R-014), a refined reinterpretation of the ladies’ Moon Phase model in an elegant shade of pearl gray (Reference 7121/200G-010) and two sleek new Calatrava models honoring the cherished Asian tradition of “pair watches” (References 6127G-010 and 7127G-010).
Patek Philippe has also produced a commemorative catalogue presenting all the timepieces included in the grand exhibition “Watch Art” Tokyo 2023. All proceeds from the sale of this volume, a limited edition, will go to the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan.
Through its grand exhibitions, open to the public, offering free admission and encouraging closer acquaintance with its creations, heritage, philosophy and devotion to fine workmanship, Patek Philippe aims at sharing its passion for horology with a broad audience ranging from the connoisseur to the novice. The momentum will continue with Milan, home of fashion and design, in 2025.
