Patek Philippe

Dear Guys,

I am going to be in Geneva next week and thought I would drop by the Patek Boutique.  I have been to the Museum before and enjoyed it very much.  My questions regarding the Boutique are two.  First, what is the availability of hard to get models - do they have them , will they put you on a waiting list, or do they just laugh? Second, does anyone have a contact sales person to  ask for - you can reply by PM as regrads the latter.

Many thanks,

Rollin D

....with waiting lists is that they have never worked whenever i have given my name in a big city such as london, geneva, paris....and that was for simple watches like nautilus (5711, 5712, 5980), aquanaut (5167),  5130. they are all always polite and keen to put my name on the "list". we can always speculate as to why one never gets called but it is a waste of energy in my opinion but can range from anything like a dim-witted salesperson to simply your number never came up. as i always like to see how those "lists" work, i did ask a friend to ring some time after i got my name on the list and he was politely informed that the "list" was now closed. a cynic would arguably translate this into "i don't have a pen handy to take your name down" but then, a few weeks later, I sent a gorgeous looking lady friend of mine into the shop and she was told the same thing. ERGO: Lists do exist even though the allocation criteria seem opaque....just like trying to get shares in an IPO

and then I as I walked around the boutique the experience died down from there. The sales people were polite but not friendly and unless you wanted to pay full retail for a calatrava they treated you like a common tourist that happened to walk into their store by chance. The fact that I was already wearing a Patek did absolutely nothing to lighten their mood.

Of course this could have been just my bad luck.

I visited the Boutique last year and although I wasn't too sure to start with.

But once the sales person found that I had a genuine interest in Patek Philippe, he was only to happy to show me around the Boutique as well as showing me the whole range of watches including the ones on display on the first floor ( most of the watches on display are NON WORKING models) but at least I saw what such watches as a 5002 looked like.

To finish of our tour, our guide asked if we had yet visited the PP Museum, to which I replied that we were going the following day.

With that he produced two free passes for entry to the museum.

All in all it was avery pleasant hour spent. 

Glad to hear that you had a pleasant experience visiting the Patek Philippe boutique in Geneva.

I've only seen photographs of the interior of some of the public salons and it looks extremely beautifully decorated.

Were you offered access to the owner's lounge in one of the upper floors?

Did the boutique present you with any goodies as a Patek owner?

Does PuristS have a special agent within the boutique that can offer exceptional service to watch collectors? Perhaps a very experienced and knowledgeable sales agent or the boutique manager?

like I said maybe it was just a bad day, but I was a bit disappointed. I had just come from the museum where I was treated like a long time friend and one of their VIP clients. Perhaps it was my age, I'm almost 30 now but when I shave I look about 17. Who knows, but I just remember it being the low light of my trip to basel and SIHH with the museum being one of the high lights.

I am glad that I got to go, and I would say it is something that should be on every watch guys bucket list

Although I am only a PP fan at this point, I see how one could become impatient with their AD.

I have been in the shops at Zurich years ago, and I recall some hateur as well.  Maybe that was also an age-issue then. 

No doubt the clerks in Geneve have seen oil sheiks from Saudi Arabia, royalty  (pardon if you are in this groups) rolling up in Rolls Royces with guards..  So perhaps "ordinary" - as if any PP enthusiast is ordinary - gentlemen are grouped as "commeners", even if you are wearing a prized Patek.

I was part of the Purists group who visited the PP Factory tour, followed by the Boutique and Museum visits.  During the Boutique visit, the group bought the last remaining 5050's in the store.  the boutique manager showed us around, and gave us any missing edition of the PP magazines that we didn't have.  I also got a tie pin.

... it was early in the morning, the sales people clearly isnt ready for any polite service without their few shots of cappucinno.  My friend and i went through the ground level, asking about the availiability of a few pieces, without much luck.  We then proceeded up one level, where the more complicated timepieces were located. 

One gentleman was with another sales person, asking if he can place an order of one particular model, the obvious answer was that customer is better off contact his or her local AD, as their boutique waiting list is already quite full. 

AS we went through most display cases, we couldnt resist requesting to inspect some models more closely, namely, patek 5959, patek 5078 & patek 5016.  The sales person was took out each model, and we took our time, looking at each watch, activated their functions accordingly. 

Study and know your models well, if you know more than them, ( which isnt hard ), and go there early, the lesser the customers, the more time they can spend with you individually. 

MY suggestion is, place your order with your local AD, simply, because they dont want to entertain non local residents.

The entire selection of patek watches are in the boutique, so many so, you probably will forget about the latest basel models which you initially intended to see.

Happy hunting.