Patek Philippe

Patek Philippe Twenty 4 (ref. 4910/10a-001)

You are a very loving husband indeed! Your wife is very blessed to have such a sweet husband like you. The Patek 24 may be quartz but hey so what? It has all the elements that ladies love. Convenience, bling and elegance. Congrats to her! And to you once again for your new AP. Lovely pair photo you shared. Now we need a VC to complete the trinity. Here's my on loan to you :p Cheers Robin

My wife saw me browsing this post again on my smartphone.
She said this PP 24 is beautiful... and hinted she wants a present from me.

Luis!!! Thanks har... :p
Joking. I am glad she saw your post and like it. She is starting to open up to our hobby and share my passion.

Cheers
Robin

nothing to be sorry about , its a beauty. congrats. happy valentine to both of you. 

That´s all that counts. Congrats to your wife, for the watch and the generous husband!

All the best,
Oliver

... but it comes at the service costs of a full grown mechanical movement. ;-)

I just had the invoice for the first service of my wife’s Twenty4 on my desk – wow!

Though I have to admit, that the watch is simply beautiful - well designed und crafted.

An excellent gift, Luis!

Christian

about your statement. If you look at the official Patek site you (everybody) can see what they charge (in sfr) for which kind of service. Quartz is much cheaper, but the service costs for case & bracelet are the same - no matter which movement you have. At least to me it makes sense.

Oliver

... there can be no doubt that Patek provides transparancy regarding the hight of their service costs.

And yes, comparing absolute numbers for the service charge of quarz v mechanical movements my statement is obviously wrong. But it was not the absolute numbers that I was aiming at.

I was and am still wondering, why the service of a quarz movement made of 57 parts cost about 550 CHF while the service of let’s say a cal. 215 made of 130 parts costs only about 700 CHF. The difference in the number of parts is roughly 125%, while the service costs rise for a mere 25%. Assuming that at least half of the costs are related to disassembling and reassembling the movement - as this takes valuable watchmakers time - the difference in the number of parts should result into a much greater difference in service costs.

Does the pricing still make sense to you? To me it does not.

 

Cheers,

Christian

your assumptions may be correct - or not, both of us (I guess) don´t work in that business and therefore we don´t know the detailed processes needed and their related costs. In my daily business as a consultant it happens quite often that we look at processes in every detail. Quite often we are surprised about the real costs and where they are coming from.

I think transparency is a good start and not common in the luxury industry. Also whenever I got a quote from Patek it seemed to be reasonable, compared to what others in the same industry ask for.

Example: Even when I just ask for the change of a battery for a quartz movement, it should be different if I ask at an "ordinary" department store or at a serious jeweller. The service and how it is executed should be different and so will the price. Also I expect that the staff will be paid different, for a good reason. But also I have to say whenever I asked for a battery in a department store I had a bad experience (most of the time) and had to pay. At my (trusty) AD I get good quality service, a drink for free and quite often I don´t have to pay for the battery. Just happened (again) yesterday when I needed a new battery for my alarm clock from a well-known luxury brand. Still I asked them what I owe them and the watchmaker just told me: "Well, you are not here for the first time ... "

Still both of us don´t know the detailed processes, but can (hopefully) appreciate good things in life

Best,
Oliver

Dear Oliver,

Apart from Patek stating on their site:

The price of the service varies depending on the complexity of the timepiece.  

both of us can indeed just make assumptions on how the prices are calculated in detail.

I did not intend to complain about the absolut numbers. I intended to vent my puzzlement about the pricing as I coincidentally just had picked up my wife’s Twenty4 from service. Besides: my puzzlement originated in the fact that the service would comprise a testing of power reserve according to the cost estimate. ;-) My trusted AD explained that with the use of text modules.

Regarding trusted ADs I can confirm your experience: getting battery changes done on my wife’s watches as my contribution to family life I cannot remember to have ever been asked to pay for it by my AD – though I do ask what I should pay of course!

 

Have a nice weekend,

Christian

Was a 40th birthday present to my wife and she is still loving it….

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……there was a mechanical version of this as I think it is a classic design. My other half had to make do with a 7119 instead!

Congrats to your wife!  

your kind words. The discussion about servicing is also informative.