Above:  Example of what looks to me like sloppy anglage in current Patek Philippe watch movement finishing. I tried to get this fixed on my Aquanaut, but the replacement bridge is only somewhat better than the first. A representative of Henri Stern Agency told me that hand work is necessarily imperfect, unlike machine finishing. I remain unconvinced that the "grinding over" of the bevel here is an unavoidable consequence of hand workpersonship.

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	One person's disappointing experiences with Patek Philippe SA and The Henri Stern Watch Agency (2000-01)
	This is a really weird and sad story, about a Patek Philippe ref. 5054 watch I bought from an authorized dealer -- followed by another story about a Patek ref. 5066/1A I ordered earlier (from the same dealer). First, the ref. 5054:
	The watch (Case: #4084536; Movement: #3111817) was supposedly new from the factory, or, to be precise, when I ordered it, the dealer told me that I was in luck, because Henri Stern Watch Agency (Patek Philippe's USA distributor) had one yellow gold ref. 5054 in stock. When I brought the watch back to the dealer (due to problems I describe below...), the dealer said it was indeed not right and that they would send the watch back to Henri Stern Agency for a replacement. After Stern received the watch, the dealer said someone there told him that "at some point the watch case had been opened".
	Henri Stern Agency immediately sent the dealer a fresh-from-Geneva replacement, which was indeed "clean". On hearing this, I was happy, since I did not imagine that the new watch could be anything other than the watch that was returned, except without the defects.
	However! When I put the replacement watch on, I couldn't keep it from rolling around on my wrist, because my wrist is small and the replacement watch's case back was almost "bubble"-shaped (i.e., the flat part of the case back that rests on the wrist was small relative to the overall diameter of the watch). Soon I realized that the case had to be different than the first watch! After studying pictures on the Patek website (which I had not looked at closely before I ordered the first watch!), I soon came to the conclusion that the replacement watch was a standard ref. 5054 -- whereas the first watch had not been a standard ref. 5054.
	My speculation, in retrospect, is that the first watch was some kind of prototype that "escaped". Its case back was "flatter" than the standard 5054 (the first watch stayed in place on my wrist). Also: The ref. 5054 has a hinged protective case back (half-hunter?). On the first watch, the hinged cover had a rounded edge and, when closed, it just rested on the watch's case back. On the second watch, the hinged cover had an edge almost sharp enough to cut yourself on, and when you closed it, it snapped shut so that, when you opened it, you heard a tinny
	Plink!
	noise. (I feel that a tinny "Plink!" sound is not compatible with the dignity of Patek Philippe; but a manager at Henri Stern Agency told me Patek worked very hard to make the ref. 5054 case back that way.)
	I asked the dealer to try to get the first watch back so that we could compare the two (I offered to pay any associated costs). This went on for over 6 months, with Henri Stern Agency at first saying they were working on the watch, and then saying it had been sold. Someone may be walking around wearing what they think is a regular Patek ref. 5054 but which is really a unique piece (or maybe the movement was re-cased in a standard ref. 5054 case before being re-sold?). Alternatively, the watch (or at least the watch case) is either still "somewhere" in Patek, or else it was broken up for parts or the evidence was destroyed???
	The first watch was beautiful -- better: enchanting until I examined it with my 10X loupe. That's when I saw the things that made me unhappy and made me take it back to the dealer, including: (1) what looked like steel wool abrasion on the barrel bridge, (2) badly done engraving on the bridges, (3) scratches on the mini-rotor, (4) several pieces of lint inside the movement. In addition, (5) after examining the Certificate of Origin document closely, it looked to me like it may have been produced at Henri Stern Agency just before they shipped the watch to my dealer (i.e., not "original").
	The case back of the first watch was finished so exquisitely that I thought it must be like one of Patek's US$300,000+ watches (ref. 3939H). The second watch -- the normal ref. 5054 -- was disappointing, as I said, because it had a completely different case back design. It also has a protruding "ring" around the edge of the case near the front that makes it reminiscent of a mushroom. Also, the dial in the first watch was slightly off-center in the case, which made the minute hand sometimes not align exactly with the "tick marks" on the "railroad track" around the edge of the dial [other ref. 5054 owners have complained that they were annoyed by this "defect" in their watch]; the dial in the second watch was exactly centered, so that the minute hand was "correctly" synched with the tick marks, but somehow the result looked boring.
-	-There's the story. If I had not bought from an authorized dealer, there would probably be no story. Having bought from an authorized dealer at least enabled me to get my money back on the second watch, which displeased me as much due to its intrinsic design as the first watch had displeased me due to its accidental defects.
	With what I learned after it was too late, I wish I had done two things: (1) take documentary photographs of the first watch, and (2) when the dealer sent the first watch back to get fixed, that I had stipulated that I wanted that watch repaired, NOT a "factory fresh brand new replacement watch".
	The reason I wish I had taken the photographs, of course, is that my story sounds like "the fish that got away". And the reason I didn't "really make a stink about it" was that I do not have evidence [the photos I did not take...] to prove my case(no pun intended...). I believe I deserved (still deserve...) some gracious "consideration" for all this, not just my money back. [What I really wanted was the first watch (Case: #4084536; Movement: #3111817) but "right".]
	Now, my second story: When, previously, I ordered an Aquanaut (SS Patek sports watch), I was told the watches were very difficult to get. But Henri Stern Agency gave my dealer a date when mine was supposed to have been delivered. When the date arrived and the watch was not there, I asked the dealer to call Stern Agency. The dealer phoned them, and was told that the watch had not arrived and that they [Stern Agency] were unsure whether it ever would arrive.
	But where, in reality, was this watch? In U.S. Post Office Registered Mail, somewhere between Stern and the dealer. In other words: Some clerk at Henri Stern Agency was too lazy to get off their duff to check the status of the order (it was Friday afternoon, after all -- TGIF, etc....). The clerk could have told the dealer: "Excuse me, but I will have to check this out and get back to you early next week." Who knows? Maybe Stern's records were so bad that the clerk actually did check??? (The reason this episode was important to me is that, believing the watch I ordered might never arrive, I cancelled my order and bought one from a different dealer, who had one in stock and then I had a disappointing experience with that dealer, who did not pack the watch properly when they mailed it to me.)
	If I was Mr. Philippe Stern (CEO of Patek Philippe SA), and I found out the kind of "stuff" that I (BMcC) encountered was going on in my company, I would not be able to sleep peacefully or eat without indigestion, until I got to the bottom of it and fixed the root causes that enabled such things to happen. If I was Mr. Stern, the Henri Stern Aquanaut story would have put me on the next flight to New York! The ref. 5054 story, I would have to deal with in Geneva.
	I hope I have not outworn your patience, dear reader, with my stories. [There's more, as indicated in the picture at the top of this page.]
	Best wishes!
"	Yours in time... [even though time does not always tell...]...."

 

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Learn more about Patek Philippe ref. 5054 semi-complicated watch. Learn more about Patek Philippe ref. 5066/1A sports watch.   Go to Patek Philippe official website.

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http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/5015/Q5054.html Copyright © 2003,2005 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net 16 March 2006CE v02.03