THREE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MEN IN THE SWISS WATCH INDUSTRY
* ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY VONTOBEL LUXURY GROUPS SHOP BASED ON FY2017 INFORMATION.
** WATCH SALES SHARE REFERS TO THE PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESS COMING FROM WATCH CATEGORIES.
THIERRYSTERN
PATEK PHILIPPE * **
WATCH SALES (2017, IN CHF MILLION) 1,350
CHANGE (2017, COMPARED WITH 2016) +4%
WATCH SALES SHARE 100%
WORLDWIDE MARKET SHARE 3.6%
Despite helming the single most worshipped, revered and sought after high watchmaking brand, a maison that has reached near mythological level and is capable of reducing even the most jaded of watch collectors to tears of joy with the allocation of a Nautilus Perpetual Calendar reference 5740, Thierry Stern is an affable, warm and genuinely understated man. However the full measure of his vision for Patek Philippe, including the shift in the brand’s positioning to encompass a larger segment of sportier watches — everything from the now famous Calatrava Pilot Travel Time watches, Aquanaut Travel Time, Nautilus chronograph, World Time chronograph and even the vintage-styled luminous hand reference 5320 inspired by the water resistant perpetual calendar reference 1591 dating back to the ’40s — has been a huge hit in terms of connecting with a new generation of watch consumers. Stern’s only problem is there are simply not enough of his timepieces relative to the massive global avarice for them. And if you want to know why in particular this is the toughest time to try to buy in particular a sports or complicated Patek, there is a one word answer for this: China.
At some point Harvard Business school needs to teach a course on how Patek Philippe became the most successful high watchmaking brand in China. To be fair you would argue that from 1941 coinciding with the launch of the 1518 and 1526, Patek Philippe has been the single most significant and coveted watchmaking brand on the planet. The maison has been first and best in the vast majority of instances, from the first perpetual
