FabR[Senior Patek Moderator]
26166
Thanks for a thought-provoking and typically well-written thread Patrick --- it's interesting to see what our members have to say on this! :-)
Feb 26, 2022,23:39 PM
While I think I should sit out and just be an observer here, let me only briefly mention that one of the things that always *hugely* attracted me to the brand is Patek's lack of (official!) ambassadors. This has been a deliberate choice consistent with market research, of course, and can be simplified by saying that, unlike buyers of other brands, the typical Patek customers genuinely aspire to look like.....themselves, rather than some other "famous" individuals! ;-) Of course, a second argument that can now be made is that Patek would no longer even *need* to pay ambassadors!
And while I generally don't care which Pateks are worn by which public figures (I'm pretty hopeful that I'll never lose access to Patek because of them!! ;-)), the only thing I don't particularly enjoy about this recent "popular" trend is that I never really viewed Patek as "luxury", rather as "prestige" and "exclusivity". (I know this is what also the people working for Patek get trained to say, but it is exactly true!
) Certainly, the image these folks try to convey IS one of luxury for its own sake, and nothing more. Hence, at least in this sense, for me these pictures remain mostly unrelated to Patek.
If I see a "famous" actor/rapper/sports player wear a minute repeater, or a Rare Handcraft, or a split second (and there definitely are educated famous people!), then I'll genuinely appreciate their horological/artistic interests. But a rapper flashing the usual Nautilus, no matter how successful he is in his own field, becomes highly uninteresting to me
I already commented a lot.....Back to my observer/moderator chair now!
Cheers my friend.