Patek Philippe’s commitment to customer service is an indispensable element of its activities. This includes our pledge to service, repair, or restore any Patek Philippe timepiece regardless of its age.
We want to provide service at the highest possible level. This ambition is one of the fundamental criteria of the Patek Philippe Seal.
Our commitment is also expressed by the care with which we select the most talented specialists. As a family-owned enterprise, we strive to make them full-fledged members of our company as regards its values, it heritage, and of course its future.
Every professional who cares for a Patek Philippe watch must duly respect the product, its history, and its owner. We consider each watch to be as unique as its owner.
You have the assurance that your watch always benefits from the care and attention it needs to preserve its value and integrity across generations.
Technical training
“We are convinced that in our family-operated manufacture, the know-how required for servicing, repairing, and restoring our watches is just as important as the competence needed to craft new watches. For this reason, we place great emphasis on having this work performed exclusively by watchmakers who have been trained and certified by Patek Philippe.”
Patek Philippe president Thierry Stern explains that this commitment, or rather obligation, dates back to the year 1839 and reflects Patek Philippe’s respect for artisanal techniques, traditions, and expertise.
Professional repairers must be proficient in disassembly, observation, assessment, gemsetting, adjustment, mechanical optimization, polishing, assembly, and quality control. They must also master the use of tools and special lubricants and be thoroughly familiar with old and current Patek Philippe timepiece models.
The training courses for internal and external Patek Philippe watchmakers take place at Patek Philippe’s workshops in Geneva. As a rule, 2 to 5 years of professional experience are needed to complete one of our training programs, even for first-level curricula. The objective in training is to acquaint participants with the special technical features of our watches, to outline the quality criteria of the Patek Philippe Seal, and to update their knowledge base when our products undergo refinement and new models are integrated in our collections.
The training programs are organized on the basis of the levels described below. All watchmakers who have completed a program must apply their new skills in practice for at least 36 months before attending a next-level program.
Training levels
Essential Maintenance: All sales support operations, battery replacements, diagnostics of quartz and mechanical watches.
Classic: Full overhaul of quartz, manual and automatic movements with date, small seconds or moon phase.
Complications: Full overhaul of complications such as Annual Calendar, World Time, Travel Time.
Grand Complications: Full overhaul of Grand Complications such as Perpetual Calendar, Chronographs.
The mentioned training programs do not incorporate our Restoration activities.
All watchmakers who have not attended training programs for four years or more are required to attend refresher courses that acquaint them with the state of the art. The goal is to maintain the highest quality levels in repairs.
Patek Philippe also adopts a forward-looking attitude by partnering with watchmaking schools in Switzerland and around the world. They help us recruit promising talent for our in-house training, sustainably preserve horological know-how, and keep rare artisanal professions alive.
