Magazine

Inside a creative mind

Thierry Stern shares insights with Nicholas Foulkes on the creative design processes behind a selection of Patek Philippe wristwatches that he has worked on.

Director of photography: Benoît Jeannet / Videographer: Raphaël Piguet / Sound: Masaki Hatsui / Portrait photograph: John Swannell, Camera Press / Produced by Bookmark Content

Layers of influence

Ayomi Yoshida speaks to Patek Philippe magazine about how her family’s woodblock printing history influences her own creative output.

Director of photography: Hiroshi Okamoto / Photography assistant: Keigo Takemasa / Sound: Hideki Kishi / Stills: Fukuoka Art Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Mitaka City Gallery of Art, AKG Images, Graham Turner, Detroit Institute of Arts, Room & Board / Produced by Bookmark Content

Sculptural chairs

Robert Wilson speaks about designing a space to showcase Thierry Barbier-Mueller’s vast collection of sculptural chairs for an exhibition held at the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig, Germany.

Director of photography: Christopher Talbot / Stills: Robert Wilson, Lucie Jansch / With thanks to: Grassi Museum of Applied Arts, Leipzig - Mudac Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne - Fondation Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva

Welcome to the family

The president of Patek Philippe, Thierry Stern, tells Nicholas Foulkes about the inspiration behind the company’s latest collection, Cubitus.

Director of photography: Raphaël Piguet / Stills: Benoît Jeannet, Jean-Daniel Meyer, Joel Stans

The Decimal Revolution

David Rooney and Nicholas Foulkes discuss the French decimal calendar that came into use in 1793, considering its origin and what it hoped to achieve.

Director of photography: Jake Walters / Camera Operator: Chris Atkins / Stills: Alamy / Filmed on location at the Wallace Collection, London, UK

Take me to the river

Join Francheska Melendez as she treks through the Suriname rainforest with members of the local Amerindian tribes toward the enigmatic Kasikasima mountain.

Director of photography: Ben Roberts / Narrator: Francheska Melendez

Life Drawings

Hank Edelman, chairman of the Henri Stern Watch Agency, offers an intimate insight into the creative mind of Patek Philippe’s former president, Henri Stern.

Narrator: Hank Edelman / Sound Engineer: Thomas Zachero / Portrait of Mr. Edelman: Ben Hoffman

Generations of inspiration

In a new special edition of Patek Philippe magazine, we celebrate Philippe Stern’s interests and achievements. Here, Thierry Stern explains why, in conversation with Nicholas Foulkes.

Director of photography: Jake Walters / Camera operator: Chris Atkins / Stills: John Swannell (Camera Press), Graziano Villa / With thanks to: Nicholas Foulkes

Values

The president of Patek Philippe, Thierry Stern, speaks to Nicholas Foulkes about the ten values championed by his father, Philippe Stern, considering what they mean to the company today.

Director of photography: Jake Walters / Camera operator: Chris Atkins / Stills: Andy Barter / With thanks to : Nicholas Foulkes

Drawn to the snow

The snow artist Simon Beck reveals how the cartographical aspect of his technique helped him to create an artwork specially commissioned for Philippe Stern’s birthday.

Drone: H2M IMAGES / With thanks to: Simon Beck

A Leap of Faith

David Rooney admires the remarkable fourteenth century astronomical clock at Wells Cathedral in Somerset, UK, and considers its function, both past and present, as he explains the concept of the leap second.

Director of photography: Mel Yates / Photography assistant: Toby Davies / Drone operator: Mark Popple / Sound: Kevin Meredith / Filmed on location at Wells Cathedral with the kind permission of the Chapter of Wells Cathedral

Patently Clear

Philip Barat, Head of Research and Development at Patek Philippe, meets with Nicholas Foulkes to explain the unique inventions at the core of a selection of complicated timepieces featuring impressive patented innovations.

Director of photography: Benoît Jeannet

My ode to the lake

With views over Lac Léman, the Patek Philippe Salons on the rue du Rhône are the perfect setting for the display of some of Mr Philippe Stern’s favorite paintings from his private collection. The works reflect his great love of Geneva’s inspirational expanse of water.

Director of photography: Philippe Fragnière / Stills: Cavin SA

Style and substance

Throughout their history, women’s watches have been beautiful and fashionable creations, with intriguing, delicate designs that tell stories or complete an outfit. They also evidence pioneering ingenuity with complex feats of horological engineering fitted into dainty spaces.

Illustrations: Pierre Mornet / Photography: Jonas Marguet

A quarter of a century

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Patek Philippe magazine, we look back at some of the highlights and exclusive features from its pages over the years.

Credits: Bookmark Content, Patek Philippe SA

Purity and power

The Calatrava collection was the first real family to be formed in the Patek Philippe oeuvre, with origins in the early 1930s. The new Clous de Paris Calatrava, Ref. 6119, pays tribute to an early model, Nicholas Foulkes notes, as he considers the family’s wider genealogy.

Director of photography: Jake Walters

A touch of glass

The great French designer René Lalique created a superb series of glass car mascots during the golden age of motoring, which today are highly collectible. The gallerist Simon Khachadourian has assembled one of the world’s most complete collections of these scintillating little sculptures.

Director of photography: Kalpesh Lathigra / Stills: Alamy; British Pathé; Getty Images; GP Archives; INA (National Audiovisual Institute, France); Studio Y. Langlois, Lalique Museum collection / With thanks to: National Motor Museum, Beaulieu; Pullman Gallery, London

Faith and fortitude

Join Rainbow Nelson as he makes a pilgrimage across Colombia to visit the extraordinary ravine-straddling shrine of Las Lajas, which preserves an enigmatic image of the Virgin Mary.

Director of photography: Pia Riverola

Once upon a time in Farafra

In this homage to his treasured homeland, the bedouin Saad Alwy takes Simon Ings on a journey of discovery across the awe-inspiring landscapes of Egypt’s White Desert

Director of photography: Catherine Hyland

A Show of Hands

Working to craft the perfectly formed watch hands that adorn the faces of Patek Philippe watches is no easy task, explains Isabelle Chillier, the managing director of Fiedler SA.

Director of photography: Benoît Jeannet / With thanks to: Isabelle Chillier, Director, Fiedler SA

Revolutionary instruments

At the Whipple Museum in Cambridge, David Rooney finds that engravers and illustrators worked alongside astronomers and mathematicians to create the fragile scientific instruments lovingly preserved as part of our cultural heritage

Director of photography: Mel Yates / Stills & archival footage: Alamy; Daniel Crouch Rare Books – crouchrarebooks.com; Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge

Collector’s guide: ref. 605 HU

During a visit to the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, John Reardon discusses the history of Louis Cottier’s World Time system, with a specific focus on the landmark Ref. 605 HU

Director of photography: Jorge Luis Diéguez / Stills & archival footage: Alamy, Bridgeman Images, Christie’s Images Limited, Getty Images, Sotheby’s

Welcome to the week

Nicholas Foulkes considers the historical cues for the design of the new steel Ref. 5212A Calatrava Weekly Calendar watch.

Director of photography: Jake Walters

Enter the dragon

Behind the scenes at the Wang family workshop in Shaanxi province, China, where a father and daughter keep the magic of shadow puppet theater alive.

Photographer: Ben Quinton / Shadow puppet craftsmen: Wang Tianwen & Wang Haiyan

Anatomy of a classic: ref. 5002

Our horological correspondent Nicholas Foulkes discusses the Sky Moon Tourbillon, a seminal model in Patek Philippe's oeuvre. He looks at the context in which the model was conceived and reveals what it is that makes the watch's minute repeater chime sound so exquisite.

Director of photography: Jonas Marguet, Yves Kuperberg / Set design: Flora Mottini

Profile

Delve inside the Madrid workshops of Factum Arte, a company that is working to conserve and replicate the world’s cultural heritage and contribute to contemporary artworks via the use of new technologies, including recent projects in collaboration with Marina Abramović and Grayson Perry.

Director: Ben Roberts / Director of photography: James Rajotte / Stills: Alamy

In love with lava

Follow a journey to extreme and awe-inspiring volcanic locations as the photographer Olivier Grunewald recalls some of his most memorable trips to capture these brooding, lava-spouting mountains.

Director of photography: Christophe Boulze / Sound: Olivier Lechat / Archival footage: Marc Caillet, Régis Etienne, Olivier Grunewald, Pierre Vetsch

The greatest show on earth

Following the success of last year’s Grand Exhibition, John Reardon, from Christie’s New York, explains how the American market has influenced design at Patek Philippe.

Director of Photography : Adam Golfer / Stills: Alamy, Library of Congress, John Reardon

Life and Times: Ray Charles

Ray Charles Junior reminisces about his childhood, recalling the special braille timepiece that Patek Philippe produced for his musician father.

Director of photography: Adam Golfer / Stills: Alamy, Getty Images

Life and times

Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and the founding director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, discusses the life and legacy of John F. Kennedy – and the remarkable Patek Philippe clock that was given to Kennedy as a gift during his famous trip to West Berlin.

Director of photography: Sasha Arutyunova, Ike Edeani / Still Photos: Alamy; Bridgeman; Getty Images; John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA

How to turn heads

We visit the London workshop of Philip Treacy, whose early work appeared in the very first Patek Philippe magazine. Now one of the world’s most celebrated milliners, we see how he uses the formier Lorenzo Ré’s wooden hat blocks to create his own fantastical haute couture hat designs.

Director of photography: Mel Yates / Stills: Jérôme Galland, Getty Images

Patek Philippe in America

From world’s fairs to Patek Philippe’s own The Art of Watches Grand Exhibition in New York in 2017, exhibitions have played an important part in fostering the company’s long and fruitful relationship with the US. John Reardon explains.

Director of photography: Adam Uhl / Stills & archival footage: Alamy, Getty, Library of Congress

In other words

The choreographer and dancer Tan Hui-Chen describes the way in which she has been influenced by the ancient Chinese language of Nüshu – a language created and used only by women in a small area of southern China – in her critically-acclaimed dance productions

Choreography: Tan Hui-Chen / With thanks to: Water Reflection Dance Ensemble

Nautilus

As the Nautilus celebrates its 40th birthday, Patek Philippe’s iconic steel wristwatch seems as fresh as the day that Gérald Genta unveiled his first design. Nicholas Foulkes celebrates the versatility and longevity of this much-loved model.

Director of photography: Jake Walters

Another time, another place

All time is measured from the prime meridian at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London. Dr David Rooney, Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the city’s Science Museum, explains why.

Director of photography: Adrian Wolfson / Archival Footage and Stills: Alamy, Architekturmuseum TU Berlin, Bridgeman, Getty Images, The Times/News Syndication

Divining the path to harmony

Photographer Andrew Rowat travelled to Anhui province in China to meet a seventh generation feng shui compass maker.

Director of photography: Algirdas Bakas / Still Photos: Andrew Rowat

Land of fire and ice

Award-winning landscape photographer Simon Norfolk recounts his adventures in the Kamchatka peninsula at the eastern edge of Russia: experiencing the wilderness is a privilege as well as a challenge, he finds.

Director of photography: Adrian Wolfson / Still Photography: Simon Norfolk

Land of fire and ice, part two

Before he traveled to Kamchatka, the photographer Simon Norfolk had been on a number of exciting assignments for Patek Philippe magazine. Here he recalls his trips to Socotra, Syria and Iraq.

Director of photography: Adrian Wolfson / Still Photography: Simon Norfolk

Origami emblem

Robert J. Lang folds a Calatrava cross from one single piece of paper.

Credits: Director of photography, Adrian Gaut

Wide blue yonder

It was the practical needs of the earliest aviators that dictated design rules of the pilot watch, says Nick Foulkes, introducing the Calatrava Pilot.

Director of photography: Frederic Aranda / Archival footage: Getty Images / Stills: Getty Images, Library of Congress

Sweet thing

Watch amezaiku (candy sculpture) expert Shinri Tezuka at work.

Director: Christoffer Rudquist / Director of photography: Hirokazu Kishida / Editor: Andonis Trattos / Grading: Joseph Bicknell

Life & times

John Reardon celebrates Gilbert Albert, designer of Princess Marta zu Windisch-Graetz of Austria’s famous 1960 18k-gold bracelet watch, as well as many other masterpieces at Patek Philippe

Director of photography: Raspberry & Jam
Still Photos: Christie’s Images Ltd, John Reardon

Surfboards

James Malcolmson meets one of the founders of professional surfing, the acclaimed board shaper Randy Rarick, at his home in Honolulu.

Credits: Director of photography, Jesse Chehak / Archival footage: Opper Sports Productions

Taking on the World

Peter Bellerby, globemaker, on the history of his craft and his landmark commission for the Louvre museum in Paris.

Credits: Director of photography, Tom Turley / Still photos: AKG, Alamy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Getty, private collection

Bucking the trend

The architectural successes of maverick inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983).

Credits: Footage, audio and images of Buckminster Fuller and his works, courtesy of The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller / Still photos: Alamy, Corbis, ESTO, Getty

Africa’s Eden

Videographer Carol Sachs filmed behind the scenes on a shoot for Patek Philippe magazine in São Tomé, an island off the western equatorial coast of Africa.

Credits: Carol Sachs

Forecasting the future

Nick Foulkes takes us on a journey through the history of perpetual calendars at Patek Philippe.

Credits: Frederic Aranda, Mark Arrigo

Homage to horology

The directors of Patek Philippe’s three salons take us on a tour of the magnificent premises in Geneva, Paris and London.

Credits: Director of photography, Tom Turley / Still photos: Lee Mawdsley

Pictorial

Musician Stephen Coates from the X-Ray Audio project explains the origins of music “on the bone”.

Instrumental to perfection

Manufacture guide, Daniel Jaquet (formerly head of movement components, development and production) takes us on a tour of Patek Philippe’s unsung heroes: the watchmaking tools.

Credits: Director of photography, Christophe Michaud

The ancient house of healing

The Passion of Christ at Santa Maria Novella pharmacy are among Mariotto di Nardo’s best preserved frescos. Sonia Chiodo explains their significance.

Credits: The Bridgeman Art Library - Photo Scala, Florence. The restoration was undertaken on behalf of the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della Città di Firenze.

Roden Crater – Naked Eye Observatory

It is the hands-on experience of astronomy that connects us to the universe, says Kristen Lippincott, the former director of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

Credits: With thanks to University College London Observatory / Still photos: AKG, Alamy, Corbis, Getty, Middle Tennessee State University

The Secret World

Artist Macoto Murayama explains his fascination with flowers and the process behind the botanical blueprints he creates in his Kanagawa workspace.

Credits: Shiho Fukada, Macoto Murayama

Science, illustrated

American artist Caleb Charland is inspired by the work of early experimental photographers.

Credits: Jeremy Liebman, Courtesy MIT Museum and William Henry Fox Talbot, by John Moffat

On the crest of a wave

The genesis of a creation inspired by Lake Geneva. Interview with Sandrine Stern, Head of Watch Creation at Patek Philippe.

Credits: Frederic Aranda

Viva Las Vega

Classic car collector Justin Banks explains his particular passion for the 1962 Facel II and why he can never part with it

Credits: James Aiken, Tom Turley

Bauhaus

Wolfgang Thöner, Head of Collection at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, explains the impact of the Bauhaus School of Design – inspiration for Patek Philippe’s iconic Calatrava watch – and how its treasures are to be kept for future generations

Credits: Kate Reid, Getty Images

Industry of nations

A whistlestop tour of World’s Fairs

Credits: AKG images, Alamy, Art Resource, Bildarchiv und Grafiksammlung Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Bridgeman, Corbis, Mary Evans, Framepool, Getty Images, INA, Roger Viollet

Grand commissioners

The origins of many private American museums lie in the private collections amassed by the tycoons of the gilded age. Stacy Perman explains.

Credits: Age fotostock, AKG images, Alamy, Bridgeman, Corbis, Framepool, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Huntington Library Collection, Lost & Found films, Office for Metropolitan History, Museum of the City of New York, Scala

The making of a brand

Peter York compares two very different advertising men of the 1950s and 60s, who led the scene on Madison Avenue at the time when Patek Philippe first truly established its brand in the modern world.

Credits: Jake Walters, Advertising Archive, Corbis, Getty Images, Kobal Collection

Illustrating 175 years of Patek Philippe

Artist Nabil Nezzar explains how he created the stunning artwork for our special anniversary issue.

Credits: artworks (c) Nabil Nezzar/Folio Agency

Patek Philippe 175th Anniversary

Nick Foulkes chooses his favorite pieces from a special Christie’s auction in November 2014, celebrating Patek Philippe’s 175th anniversary.

Credits: Frederic Aranda

An open and shut case

John Reardon explores the origins of the officer's watch

Credits: AKG, Alamy, Getty Images, TopFoto

The art of Trompe l’Oeil

Dr. Lois Oliver, curator and art historian, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Credits: Jake Walters, Art Institute of Chicago, Banco de Espana, Bridgeman, Getty Images, Kassel Museum, Museu del Modernisme Català, RMN, Scala

An open and shut case

The making of the Ref. 5227

Photo credit: Christophe Michaud

Glass menagerie

Photographer Guido Mocafico on his nature morte project and the nineteenth-century glassmakers, the Blaschkas

Credits: Bridgeman, Laure Flammarion, Guido Mocafico

The car is the canvas

When art finds a moving medium, the results can be remarkable, as the BMW Art Car series shows

Credits: BMW Group MediaPool, Christian Kain

Rock of ages

Writer Robert Bevan travels across Ethiopia for a photoshoot of Lalibela’s legendary underground churches

Credits: Joël Tettamanti, Jeremy Ayer, Alexander Story

Power play

Carlos Cruz-Diez on his use of color at the Guri Dam and other public art projects

Credits: Atelier Carlos Cruz-Diez, © Buddy Mays/Corbis, Getty Images, Christophe Boulze and Oliver Caillard

Bright sparks

From their first success as masters of pyrotechnics in the court of Louis XV, to twenty-first-century France, the legacy of the Ruggieri brothers has endured

Credits: AKG images, Art Archive, Bridgeman, Getty Images, Getty Research Institute, James Reeve

Pure and simple

Philippe Stern introduces the new Calatrava Ref 5123

Credits: Scala

East meets West Coast

Extracts from the writings of Dr Kyo Koike, one of the founding members of the Japanese American Seattle Camera Club

Credits: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division, David F. Martin, Nicolette Bromberg

Polished to perfection

Nick Foulkes on the journey of the Nautilus

Credits: Oliver Caillard, Christophe Michaud

An island reborn

The fishing isle of Fogo, off the coast of Newfoundland, has reinvented itself as an artists’ retreat

Credits: Adrian Gaut

Pieces of history

John Reardon and Nick Foulkes discuss Patek Philippe limited editions

Credits: Photos Jean-Daniel Meyer

Feathers and flames

George Williamson, choreographer for the English National Ballet, on remaking Stravinsky’s The Firebird

Credits: AKG, Bridgeman, Corbis, ITN Source, Scala, Andrej Uspenski

Casting a spell

Guillaume Féau shows us his boiserie workshops in Paris

Credits: Photo Christophe Boulze and Olivier Caillard

Sacred monsters

Look up in any ancient city and you will eventually see a gargoyle

Credits: AKG, Alamy, Bridgeman, Camera Press, Centre des Documents Nationaux, Corbis, Getty, Pedro Pegenaute

This is how to make dials

Cadrans Flückiger, established in 1860, has been making Patek Philippe dials for more than six decades

Credits: James Bort, Mark Arrigo

Architect of dreams

The imaginary world of Sir Ken Adam

Credits: Henry Bourne, Alamy, Getty Images, Kobal, MGM, Rex Features, Thames and Hudson

Atlas Mountains

Info-graphics from the 1800s

Credits: AKG Images, Corbis, Getty Images, David Rumsey Collection

Cover versions

The Tregaskis bookbinding exhibition

Credits: Thomas Brown, The University of Manchester Library, Alamy, Getty Images, Bridgeman Art

Capturing the Stars

The work of Étienne Léopold Trouvelot

Credits: New York Public Library, The Royal Society, SuperStock

American Dream

Extracts from an interview with Hank Edelman, chairman of the board of Patek Philippe New York, on his fiftieth anniversary with the company

Credits: Lighthouse Films, AKG, British Airways, Esto, Getty Images

Stony Silence

The story of Nemrut Dagi

Credits: Simon Norfolk, Scala Florence

America's Top Models

Architect Richard Meier at his model museum in New York

Credits: Arcaid, Corbis, Esto, Eyevine, Getty Images, Otto, James Ransom, View, McGraw Hill

Empire Builder

Sinan's Istanbul

Credits: Dan Susman, Paul Freeman

Life & times

The remarkable story of Lieutenant Charles Woehrle and his Patek Philippe watch

Credit: Louise Woerhle

Shrouds of Mystery

The final cut

Credit: Philip Lee Harvey

Shrouds of Mystery

Behind the scenes of a photographic shoot

Credits: Philip Lee Harvey, Corbis