A momentous occasion, the first ever outing of the culture group. This was organised by Mike Muller, one of our newest GINtlemen, who had not realised that the culture group existed in name only – up till now!
Mike wisely decided that a museum visit would be better on full stomachs so seven of us met at 12:15 at Le Lyrique for lunch and a good chat. We also wisely, and uncharacteristically, only chose soft drinks. We then repaired to the Patek Philippe museum for our visit scheduled for 14:30.
Mike had arranged a private guide and also somehow managed to keep negotiating the price down. We started expecting to have to pay over 40 francs each and ended up paying 23! Each time re received an email from Mike the price had reduced further – a week later and they would have paid us! The downside of this was that one floor of the museum was closed which was why they were not charging the normal 10 francs entrance fee.
The guide explained how Patek (Polish) and Philippe (French) came to be working together and also the development of the pocket watch then the wrist watch during the 1st world war. Each watch seemed to have more and more “complications” including perpetual calendars, correctly adjust date for leap years, and even one that will not count 2100 as a leap year but will count 2400 – if mankind exists that long!
Several of the watches were limited edition or even one off so adding extra value. One watch recently sold at auction for $31 million!
In 1932, during the depression, the company was bought by the Stern family who have run it since then as a family business. They have also bought back many of their watches which were previously owned by famous people and these feature in the museum.
A very interesting and educational visit, thanks to Mike for organising, despite there not being any free samples at the end of the visit.
Attending: Mike Muller, Paul Sochaczewski, Harry Leefe, Thatcher Shellaby, Drew Meek, John Burley, Mark Watts
