Our Commitment to Service

Watchmaker Training

The Patek Philippe watchmaker training program is structured by stages of complexity. To reach the most advanced level of the program and be authorized to work on the most complex timepieces, our watchmakers will train for at least 10 to 12 years.

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.

Thierry Stern, President

A Stringent Curricula

The training courses take place at Patek Philippe’s workshops in Geneva. 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. The training program also includes compulsory “refresher” courses every 4 years.

Level 1

Essential

Essential maintenance of our watches can be carried out at our Authorized Retailers. These services include all sales support operations, battery replacements, bracelet adjustments, date and time adjustments for complicated watches, and diagnostics for both our quartz and mechanical watches.

Level 2

Classic

These procedures take place at our Service Centers and encompass a full overhaul of quartz, manual and automatic movements with a date, small seconds, or moon phase. For our watchmakers to perform this level of intervention on our watches, we require at least three years of training.

Level 3

Complications

Watchmakers need to follow specific training for at least six years before they can perform a full overhaul on our Complications watches, which include timepieces with Annual Calendar, World Time, and Chronograph functions. These operations are carried out at our Service Centers.

Level 4

Grand Complications

Performing a full overhaul of Grand Complications is the final level of training and will allow the watchmaker to work on watches such as Perpetual Calendars and Chronographs. A minimum level of experience is required, depending on the movement, to perform interventions on Grand Complications.

Training Future Generations

As we pledge to repair or restore any Patek Philippe timepiece regardless of its age, it is our responsibility to carefully preserve and pass on to the next generations the savoir-faire required to service our watches.

Patek Philippe Institutes

In 2013, Patek Philippe established its first independent regional training institute in Shanghai, dedicated to after-sales watch repair for North Asia. Institutes in New York, Geneva and Singapore soon followed. These centers offer a comprehensive two-year, four-stage apprenticeship program for candidates without any previous watchmaking experience.

The Polishing Institute

In 2017, the Patek Philippe Polishing Institute opened in Geneva. This Institute is solely dedicated to the highly skilled craft of after-sales polishing, where polishers are trained in a 16-month, five-stage program to execute our watch-finishing requirements.

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Fine Workmanship and Accuracy Competition

In 2010, we created the Concours de Bienfacture et Précision (Fine Workmanship and Accuracy Competition). Aimed at students in Swiss watchmaking schools, this competition gives them the unique opportunity to focus on a high-end mechanical caliber. The winners are then awarded an internship in our Manufacture in Geneva and/or in an Authorized Service Center abroad.