It is a relentless attention to detail that sets Patek apart from other watchmakers. The firm designs and produces almost all of its watch parts and decorates and hand-assembles each watch, some 25,000 per year. The firm makes four basic wristwatch designs, all with a variety of different features and complications. Produced in editions from one to 300, the watches are hand-finished, or polished. Hand-finishing, which only a few of the top companies do, minimizes friction in the watch, while increasing its precision, longevity and beauty.
Every piece is washed, polished, checked and rechecked at each step.
It is this painstaking work and craftsmanship that earns Patek Philippe 95 percent of all Geneva Seals, the watch world's official hallmark of perfection. It takes 1,200 steps to make the movement of a Patek Philippe self-winding wristwatch with complications. Once assembled, each movement undergoes 600 hours of tests and adjustments, including simulated real-life wear and tear. As a result, less than 3 percent of the watches fail the final in-house quality control tests and, once they are sold, fewer than 1 percent are returned, the company says. Precision, for centuries the industry's unattainable ideal, has become a trickier business now that quartz watches are ubiquitous.