I visited the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva yesterday. It is full enough of wonderful things to make my and perhaps all our collections seem utterly trivial.

The museum is literally a jewel box of brilliantly displayed and labelled items. Nearly every one of the thousands of items -- many of them elaborately enameled or jeweled -- seemed perfect. There were hundreds of gorgeous Chinese and Turkish market watches, hundreds of non-Patek Philippe clocks, watches, bird boxes, ect., an interesting collection of old watchmaker benches and tools (including a watchmaker actually making tiny watch parts), and, of course, hundreds of Patek Philippes, including many complicated ones, such as several of the very famous Graves' watches, and a recently built "pocket" watch that Patek Philippe claims is the most complicated one ever made. It weighs about 2.5 pounds. For that reason and many others, it's not going into my pocket.

I don't recall seeing a single American watch, unless you would regard an Albert Potter chronometer to be one even though he made it after he moved to Geneva.

Last year, I visited the Beyer Watch & Clock Museum in Zurich. It too had many fabulous pieces, but it is only about a tenth the size of the Patek Philippe Museum.

So go to the Patek Philippe Museum or the Beyer if you have the opportunity. But be forewarned: They are humbling experiences. The ***** Museum is worth visiting too, but I don't recall it being nearly as impressive.

Ethan,

Were you able to take pictures in the Patek Philippe museum?

John

No, but take a look at the photos on its excellent website.

Considering their pricing, I´m not surprised they have such a magnificent museum. I asked for the cost of the revision of an open face PW and restoration of the dial (which wasn´t too bad!)...
Here´s their answer

Patek Philippe Referenz 585

Sehr geehrter Herr Rosier,
vielen Dank für Ihre E-Mail über unsere Website.
Eine Restauration Ihrer Uhr ist in unserem Stammhaus in Genf selbstverständlich möglich.

Ohne Ihre Uhr vorliegen zu haben, können wir über die Kosten und Lieferzeit nur schwer Auskunft geben, da beides abhängig von den nötigen Arbeiten ist.

Der Preis für die Restauration von Werk und Zifferblatt kann bei ca. 8.000,- bis 10.000,- € liegen, die Lieferzeit 24-36 Monate betragen.
Für weitere Auskünfte stehen wir Ihnen sehr gerne zur Verfügung.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jasmin Palm

Reparaturen & Lederbänder

Saying in other words, no we don´t want to revise your watch and if we do, then we want to earn a fortune on it!
It would take 24-36 months to do it and we´d take
8000€-10000€= $11500-$14400...What an insult!

That answer alone was enough to convince me that I don´t need Patek Philippe in my collection!

Patek Philippe does charge high prices for everything (except admission to the museum). I had it overhaul a wristwatch about 25 years ago. The bill was close to US$2,000. I have about a dozen Patek Philippes but I don't expect that I will ever again have Patek Philippe service any of them. But you don't have to own Patek Philippes to go to the museum. If you are in Geneva, I highly recommend it.