Inside Patek Philippe: A Conversation with President Thierry Stern on Leading a Family-Owned Legacy

With the exception of the Cubitus, which made plenty of headlines in the watch industry earlier this year, Patek Philippe is one of those brands that silently marches on, creating incredibly beautiful and equally intricate watches year after year. Sitting near the top of this horology food chain, the brand is undoubtedly an important player within the industry.

How many times have we seen Patek Philippe watches smash price records at auction? How many complication firsts have we seen coming out of the brand and its accompanying patents? And yet, it does so with such nonchalance that it seems to imply that the Geneva stalwart is playing its own game, untethered from trends and what everyone else seems to be doing.

I think it can continue on this trajectory, unhindered and unfazed, because it is one of the last companies of this size and magnitude within the watchmaking industry to be family-owned. The direction is set firmly by the man at the helm, and that man, the current president of Patek Philippe, is Thierry Stern.

So, when offered a rare chance to have a conversation with Stern, that is not an opportunity many would pass up. There was a lot to talk about with Stern, a man who reportedly has listened to every minute repeater to come out of Patek Philippe under his stewardship. But with only a 20-minute window to ask all burning questions, I decided to go with a bit of a more unorthodox line of questioning. Don’t worry, I still managed to throw in a question about the Cubitus at the end.

This year, there are 15 references launched at Watches & Wonders Geneva. As always, there isn’t a particular emphasis on one collection or another. Instead, there are just novelties from across all the collections. Is this the strategy? To ignore the noise and just focus on making better watches every year?

I don’t know if we are making better watches every year… <he jokes, obviously> but that is totally correct. It is really to raise up the entire family of watches instead of just focusing on one collection. Just focusing on one collection can be quite dangerous, like with Audemars Piguet and the Royal Oak. It is a very nice watch, but maybe someday, people will say I have enough, and they don’t have anything else.

So, for Patek Philippe, this is why we decided many years ago that no, we have to raise up the Nautilus, but at the same time, we also have to improve the Ellipse, the Calatrava, the complicated watch, the grand complication, and that is a big part of our strategy. And it is also very fun. I love it! You get to work on a simple Calatrava and at the same time, a big minute repeater, and that is the strength of Patek Philippe.

We will not change the strategy. Sometimes we have to launch a new family like the Cubitus, but even as we launched the Cubitus, we were also working on many new models from other collections. And that is what, I think, people expect from us. Everyone is different, different tastes, different amounts of money to spend on watches. And Patek Philippe has to be able to supply as much variety as possible in terms of watches.

I would imagine it gives you a lot of creative outputs by working this way?

A lot of prototypes <he chuckles> and it is not easy. But, over time, you become better and better at this. There is no miracle. It’s just about learning over time.

Patek Philippe watches are obviously very highly desirable in the auction world. For example, Ref. 1518 in steel is constantly breaking price records at auction every time it shows up. I wonder how you feel about all this, as you are making new timepieces?

I can only be proud about that because it shows that the respect, knowledge and attractiveness for Patek Philippe is still there! But I also take this as a huge responsibility for me. When I am designing these pieces today, I have to remember that. And this is why I am a very cool person generally, but when it comes to the design, to the movement of the watches, I can be very tough. Because I need to respect all those vintage pieces from the past, all the DNA that was part of it and today, I think this is really what people expect not only from me but from Patek.

The watches we are making today, maybe in 20 to 50 years from now, may become the so-called hot cookies of tomorrow. And for me, this is really great, even more so if you have a museum!

I was wondering about this as well. Patek Philippe has been around for a long time. Are you still actively looking for pieces for the museum, or have you collected them all?

Oh yeah, all the time, but of course now, we have, I would say, 95 per cent of the pieces that we are looking for. So, it is a little less than before. And they are not easy to find nowadays. Some of them are long gone, because maybe there was just one or maybe two pieces ever made. They are, I don’t know, maybe in the sea somewhere or destroyed in a fire. And some of them are in a safe, and people do not know it.

This is the beauty. You just have to wait, and one day, the new generation may find them and say, I am not passionate about watches, I am going to sell it and that’s when we will buy it. So yes, we are always looking for those pieces. The last one that I bought was not even a month ago; it was a lovely little minute repeater pocket watch. A tiny one. I really couldn’t believe it; we have one like this in the museum, but it was a little bigger. And this one came, interestingly, from the after-sales service, which is sometimes where we find the pieces we need for the museum.

The person in charge has the responsibility to warn me when something really beautiful is coming. He will say, Mr Stern, we have an amazing piece coming for after-sales service, would you like to see it, and I say yes. So, I look at the piece and I contact the owner. I say: Are you willing to sell it? Because we don’t have it, and we would be pleased to have it in the museum. Sometimes the owner will say: No, I would like to keep it. But at least I know where the piece is.

Looking towards the future, it is reported that you already have movements planned until 2039. From today until then, will there be anything launched as contentious as the Cubitus?

You really think I will answer this? Nice try, but I will not talk about it. What is interesting, and what I love about Patek, is that within the company, there are maybe 20 or 30 people who know about all those plans. And nearer to launch, say, six months before the Geneva show, maybe 1,000 people already know about it, but no one is talking about it. That also shows the respect for the brand from our own people. The secret is something important for us. Because when you come back next year, or in 10 years, you will also enjoy the surprise when you see the latest watches. It is just like Christmas, you don’t want to know what your present is before you open it.

I think this kind of respect cannot be bought; it has to be cultivated over time, and I think a lot of Patek Philippe collectors and enthusiasts understand that.

Yes, they understand that, and it is even more obvious when customers come for a visit. We have a lot of visitors at the manufacture; the retailer has the right to invite maybe 10 to 12 people to visit the factory. I can always see the spirit and the pleasure of each client. And when we talk with them, most of the time I try to have lunch with them, that is exactly what they say. They say I can see the respect and pleasure of the team; it is something that is obvious, and that is really nice.

You were speaking earlier about the after-sales service. I was just wondering if you have any thoughts on the pre-owned market?

No, because I don’t have time and I am very focused on the new watches. There are actually a lot of brands doing it. But it’s not easy because you need a lot of watchmakers, and for me, it is just impossible to do today. I am a watchmaker who produces new watches, and of course, I will service all those watches (that we will sell or have sold). A very good after-sales service is one of the keys to success. This is especially true for Patek Philippe because we fix all watches made, even from when the brand was established. We will fix everything, so I already have a lot of work to do.

Often it is very nice because somebody will come and say “Listen, I have a watch, she is 100 years old, and I know you cannot fix it, but can you just polish it?” And we will say why can’t we fix it? Of course we can. And they are very pleased with that. Honestly, I think we are the only brand to still do this. Most of the brands will not fix the watch anymore if it is older than 30 years.

They will say, “Sorry, you have to buy a new one.” I understand this because fixing old watches is difficult, and it takes time. And it is a non-profitable business. This is also the choice that we made. We are not ready to make money out of the after-sales service. It’s part of our DNA, our value.

That’s why I installed the Patek Philippe seal. With this Patek Philippe seal, we are talking not only about the whole watch, but also the after-sales service, because when you are spending this amount of money on a watch, you do expect that there will be someone who can fix it.

This is the danger I see regarding some watchmakers that are independent. They are making amazing, complicated watches. And I say OK, fine, but the guy is alone, and when this guy is gone, who is going to be able to repair your watch? Good luck. And these are expensive watches. It is something that the buyers need to seriously consider.

Okay, just one last question before we wrap up. I know there have been a lot of questions asked about the Cubitus already, but I just have one more. During the development stages, was there ever a consideration to make a square movement to fit within the cubitus? 

Since the beginning, I said no. Because I didn’t want to be trapped with only one movement for the Cubitus. I need for this line to be able to have a simple automatic movement, but also a chronograph, or a perpetual calendar in the future.

So, it is about longevity for the collection?

Yes, so that’s why I decided not to do a square movement, because to redevelop the square movement every time I want a new complication, financially, forget it! It is impossible. So that’s why I chose to keep it round. It allows me to do whatever I like, with all the movements I have in the collection. The question is a good question, for sure. And the answer is yes, it was my choice to keep it as a round movement, and you have to accept that. This is also why, at some point, some people at Patek also asked me if we should have the sapphire caseback or not, because the movement is round. And I say yes, we have to accept that, and we made a sapphire caseback. I am not going to hide the fact that the movement is round.

This story was first seen as part of the WOW #81 Autumn 2025 Issue

For more on the latest in luxury watch reads, click here.

The post Inside Patek Philippe: A Conversation with President Thierry Stern on Leading a Family-Owned Legacy appeared first on LUXUO.