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Luxury Swiss watch maker Patek Philippe has created an exclusive watch for Hettich jewellers to mark 50-years of working with the family-owned firm.
Just 15 of the limited edition time pieces, which feature St Helier as one of the cities on the dial, have been made. Watches by Patek Philippe retail for tens of thousands of pounds and the Hettich Jersey Special Series is to be sold by special allocation only.
The relationship between Hettich and Patek Philippe goes back to 1966 when Tony Chinn met Patek Philippe’s then president, Henri Stern. The companies are now run respectively by Tony’s sons Jeffrey and Nick Chinn, and Henri Stern’s grandson Thierry Stern.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the new watch, Thierry Stern, President, Patek Philippe, praised the family ethos of Hettich and revealed why they had created this unique watch for them.
He said: “Every watch retailer around the world would dream of having something special created exclusively for them but not all of them deserve to have it. You have to have a very special relationship to do this sort of thing and I think it’s right for us to do this with Hettich.
“We have been doing business with Hettich since 1966 when my grandfather came here. There are a lot of stories in my family about Jersey.
“We are only making a very limited number of the watches. While the watch itself is from the catalogue, the dial is very specific as St Helier is included in the cities of the world you can use to set your time zone. This is very unusual so it makes it very special for local clients.
“There won’t be enough watches for everyone who wants to buy one, so choosing who to sell them to will be a real challenge for Jeffrey, but thankfully that’s part of his job not mine.”
Patek Philippe has been making watches in Geneva since 1839 and has been owned by the Stern family since 1932. Watches are hand-finished, with production currently around 60,000 watches a year. New watches can take up to nine years to develop, with the most complicated models containing over 1,300 parts. The company achieved a world record when their ‘Henry Graves’ supercomplicated pocket watch (1933) sold at Sotheby’s in 2014 for nearly $24 million USD.
Jeffrey Chinn, Director, Hettich, said: “Only 15 of the yellow gold World Time watches will be made, and with their special green guilloche centre, green alligator strap and marked with Hettich Jersey 2016, they represent a unique opportunity to capture a moment in time.”
The Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 5130J – Hettich Jersey Special series watch is available to view at Hettich Jewellers on King Street.
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