SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED

Sure, the Patek Philippe Seal is in-house. But the latest update makes it the most stringent and comprehensive quality certification available in watchmaking

The Patek Philippe Seal is the brand's self-designed, but not self-indulgent, certification of quality. Unfortunately, for many watch buyers, third-party certifications like the Poinçon de Genève are worn out. At one point, the Hallmark of Geneve, as it is known in English, was used so much and so freely by anyone who wanted to impart a sense of superiority to their products that it did not carry much weight anymore. And that is indeed regrettable because watchmaking is all about quality; meaning brands at the highest level should be made accountable for how well they make their watches, movements, dials, cases...everything.

Since there is more than one way to skin a cat, it is impossible to find one unequivocal basis of comparison with which to evaluate watchmaking. Many have tried, hence the Hallmark of Geneva is just one of several measures of quality. The COSC, Master Chronometer and Laboratoire de Precision all aim at grading a movement's or a watch's running accuracy. Returning to the Poinçon de Genève, since 1886 it had established the norm which encompassed most of the relevant aspects of high watchmaking. And there was a time when Patek Philippe used its criteria and applied that physical stamp to its timepieces.

GOING IT ALONE

At the time, Patek Philippe was still a brand like a handful of others...and it had had enough of that. Patek Philippe, as collectors today might agree, belonged in a club of one. Just eight months before Thierry Stern became President of the entire brand's apparatus in 2009, it launched the Patek Philippe Seal initiative. Interpret it as Philippe Stern's swansong if you want; the elder Stern was retiring and transferring power to his successor, Thierry. Whatever one might think, the Patek Philippe Seal was part of a move far larger than any succession plan because it had been decided that Patek would be a brand unlike any other.