RECOMMENDED READING: Patek Philippe production is down 30% due to COVID-19

Zach Blass

If you have been holding your breath for the 5711 you put your name down for seven years ago, it’s time to listen to Queen Elsa and let it go – alternatively, you’ll suffocate. Like all watch manufacturers in these unprecedented times, Patek Philippe has taken a hit to its productivity for the year, enduring lockdowns and, later, staggered workforces and interrupted production.

The brand has also had to adapt the way they engage with and present to consumers – allowing authorised dealers to list their watches online and recently launching their first watch via a digital announcement. By no means is the esteemed brand in financial trouble, as their years of success have built a nice fiscal cushion, or “a lot of reserves of cash”, as Thierry Stern puts it, for moments such as this.

But for a brand that does not produce Swatch Group-level quantities, many cannot help but wonder what this means for watch availability and production quantity for this year. In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, Thierry Stern has provided us the answer: Patek Philippe production is down 30 per cent, due to COVID-19.

Thierry Stern explains, “For Patek, we have a lot of reserve cash, and when we had to shut down for a month and a half … it was OK. I knew I had to decrease the quantity [of watches produced] for the year. The target was about 60,000 to 65,000 pieces. I couldn’t do it losing that time, but I am still OK. The business is decreased about 30 per cent, but I am still OK with that.” Assuming the target was 60,000 watches prior to the pandemic hitting the world, this means that we can expect Patek Philippe to produce 40,000 watches this year – with stainless steel manufactured in even smaller quantities.

To Stern’s credit, he recognised the importance of preserving their workforce and team to ensure people were not getting sick. The reality is if one of the master watchmakers or artisans has an unfortunate encounter with the virus it could deal a devastating blow to the output of highly complicated watches in the long term. These men and women cannot be replaced quickly, and would require an extremely trained and seasoned watchmaker to fill their shoes.

Being an independent and family-run company for almost 90 years by the Stern family, a lot of business experience and tactics have been developed and shared over generations. Stern explains, “My dad always told me that you have to be ready for a crisis at any time. He faced a few of them in the past, and so that is something I have always had in mind, so when the crisis came, I felt prepared.”