The Patek Philippe Museum marks another anniversary.
Fans of watchmaking who enjoy traveling are spoiled for choice: there's Audemars Piguet's spiral-shaped museum rising up from the landscape of Switzerland's Vallée de Jour, the Omega Museum in its honeycombed wooden structure by architect Shigeru Ban, the minimalistic IWC Museum and no less than three Breguet museums in different corners of the world.
Nevertheless, the Patek Philippe Museum which marks its twentieth anniversary this year is still the titleholder dubbed the "Temple to Watchmaking". The opening of the museum in 2001 was such an important event in the world of watchmaking that the medals commemorating the opening are still sold for USD 500 on eBay.
However, the exhibition stats from the museum on Rue des Vieux-Grenadiers 7 in Geneva are far more telling than the price of souvenirs. It's essentially based on the collection Philippe Stern accumulated over a period of forty years. Philippe Stern inherited Patek Philippe from Charles and Jean Stern who acquired the company in 1932.
His interests as a collector weren't limited to historic pieces by Patek Philippe, he collected timepieces equipped with complications and ones created as works of art. The resulting collection amounted to over 2000 exhibits, four floors of exhibition space and 8000 publications on time and time measurement.
One of the museum's oldest exhibits called the "Runde Halsuhr" is a pendent watch made in the shape of a drum with one hour hand created between 1530 and 1540 in Nuremberg or Augsburg. The building itself where the museum's collection is housed is part of Geneva's watchmaking history.
The building which dates back to 1920 was designed by the architect William Henssler and was the last of a dozen buildings authored by him in Geneva. It used to accommodate Ateliers Réunis and was where Nautilus cases and bracelets were made from the 1980s.
The exhibition showcases 500 years of watchmaking history, yet the overall atmosphere in the Patek Philippe Museum is still remarkably intimate. This atmosphere is created by the extensive use of eucalyptus wood throughout the museum. None other than Philip Stern's wife Gerdi worked on the the museum's interior decoration.
However, the watches still remain the main attraction. And while the collections miniature enamel paintings by Genevan artisans may be engaging, Patek Philippe's watches are the most fascinating exponents — pieces which show how watchmaking has evolved within one manufacture.
They range from a pendant watch which belonged to Britain's Queen Victoria, a "tactile" timepiece owned by Napoleon's younger brother Louis Bonaparte, the first chronograph minute repeater watch from 1926 before the 1932 Calatrava, to the Caliber 89 pocket watch with 33 complications invented by Louis Cottier.
This is an exhibition that'll leave an impression on every fan of watchmaking. Not only is a visit to the Genevan exhibition an opportunity to learn about the history of watchmaking, it'll also help you spot the archival references in Patek Philippe's modern range.