News 
On 15 October, Patek Philippe laid the first stone of a new building at its Plan-les-Ouates site.
Before an audience of around 200 guests, Philippe Stern, Honorary President, and Thierry Stern, President, had the pleasure of symbolically raising shovels of earth, flanked by Xavier Magnin, Mayor of the commune of Plan-les-Ouates and Antonio Hodgers, Geneva State Councillor.
Costing an estimated 500 million francs and entirely self-financed - 450 million for construction and 50 million for technical production equipment - the building will allow the introduction of new activities and provides the ideal solution to many training requirements. The sectors concerned are:
Innovation: intensify applied research into watchmaking techniques (supplementing research projects conducted in the context of the Patek Philippe chair at EPFL), particularly through the introduction of new test and approval laboratories.
Craftsmanship: create a new «Craftsmanship» entity, consisting of around forty internal and external artisans. This division will also house a training centre to sustain professions close to the heart of Patek Philippe.
Service: ensure the manufacture and storage of spare parts to consolidate repair activities, and more particularly the restoration of old models.
Training: centralise training requirements in Geneva in the fields of watch repair, sales and marketing for watchmakers, distributors and retailers established in Switzerland and abroad.
With a total surface area of approximately 110,000 square metres - half of which is production space - spread over six levels and four basement floors, this new building will offer once again, in 2018, the possibility of pooling all Geneva activities on a single site. It will also provide space in reserve to accommodate Patek Philippe’s growth over the next twenty to thirty years.
November 12, 2015