Thierry comments on production and COVID
Thierry Stern explains, “For Patek, we have a lot of reserve cash, and when we had to shut down for a month and a half … it was OK. I knew I had to decrease the quantity [of watches produced] for the year. The target was about 60,000 to 65,000 pieces. I c...
Thanks for sharing this. This year has obviously been a difficult one for all watchmakers, though fortunately for Patek much less than for other less established (or less independent) brands.
I have no numbers for 2020 yet, but I can tell you that Patek's 2019 official production was of roughly 62,000 watches (of which 8k manual wind, 47k automatic, and 7k quartz for ladies models). So if a 30% decrease is the expectation by the end of the yea...
That seems like a lot of watches to me...
...it would be interesting to see a breakdown; Calatrava, Nautilus, Grand Complication, etc.....
That's what I thought. It makes me question the quality of the product...
...I would not be happy about paying $90k for a watch with a movement that is machine-finished. Even if it is finished by hand later on at some level. I would rather buy independent even though those watches are quickly climbing out of sight price-wise......
With recent Pateks, you can avoid hand-finishing entirely!
Up to annual calendars and sport watches, at least. As for machine finishing with a hand-finishing final step, that is the way things are done even for most independents, as I'm sure you know. Even Roger W Smith is using CNC machines and Philippe Dufour i...
I suppose some pieces must be precision cut...I get that...
...but afterward I would want that machine-cut piece to be finished by a person and not left 'as is' or finished further by yet another machine. Don't get me wrong, I really like many PP watches. But if I had FU money (I don't) I would buy a PP watch and ...
I hope you have FU money very quickly!
A watchmaker offered to do fine finishing on a watch of my choosing, so it's certainly possible!
Swiss Wristwatches exports January-October 2020 (including 2014-2020)
From : Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH Link ⇣ Swiss watch exports January-October 2020
Fair comment on the first part of your reply ! Regarding the second part and from reading the article, I did not...
think that Thierry Stern was offering advice to other brands. To me, he was just talking about their family philosophy on how to manage Patek.
THANKS FOR THE UPDATE
Dear Mr. Stern, The most important fact is that the quality and style of your product is maintained. We are all sorry for the international misfortunes hovering from above. Firstly I wish better health conditions to all on our planet...and I am glad that ...
Thanks for letting us know of this article ! 👍
For me the big question is whether the pandemic has negatively affected demand so much that the 30% decrease in production represents too many watches for the market.