Patek Philippe's entry retains a classic design with a central dial that shows local time.
Patek Philippe's response was the sublime Nautilus, which begat a simpler model called the Aquanaut.
For watch collectors, there are plenty of choice specimens, including five Patek Philippe vintage chronographs.
As typical with an auction that includes vintage watches, Patek Philippe has a strong presence.
Patek Philippe wisely reintroduced the Nautilus line in 2005, a year ahead of the watch's 30th anniversary.
Hence the interest that will likely be generated by a stainless-steel Patek Philippe chronograph with Breguet numbers.
The unadorned Patek Philippe from his granddaughter's shoebox turned out to be one of his most prized timepieces.
Patek Philippe remains by far the leading haute horlogerie watch brand with 23.6 percent of brand interest share.
Audemars, Parmigiani, Rolex and Patek Philippe are technically independent, too, but they are different beasts than Speake-Marin and his cohorts.
The cover of Sotheby's catalog shows a striking yellow-gold Patek Philippe wristwatch (1954-61), with thick black strokes marking the time.
Less than five years after the Royal Oak appeared, Genta supplied a design to Audemars Piguet's rival watch house, Patek Philippe.
It great day for Patek Philippe as 18 of the top 20 lots was manufactured by the renown Swiss watch brand.
The Quattro was a huge hit at the Basel show, despite its having a winding duration one day shorter than Patek's.
Last week, Patek Philippe celebrated the grand opening of its first freestanding U.S. boutique in partnership with Gearys Beverly Hills.
FORBES: Patek Philippe Opens First Freestanding U.S. Boutique with Gearys Beverly Hills
Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet don't have the market entirely to themselves.
Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and some Rolex models like the King Midas are extremely rare and hard to get.
As par for the course in the timepiece auction world, a Patek Phillipe attracted the highest bid of the evening for its Ref. 3939.
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Patek Phillippe -- founded in 1839 by two Polish immigrants and bought by the Stern family in 1832 -- produces around 50, 000 watches a year.
CNN: Patek Philippe boss: Quality is more important than growth
Despite building the Patek Philippe brand in the Far East, tradition and customer loyalty are of paramount importance to the success of the Geneva-based company.
CNN: Patek Philippe boss: Quality is more important than growth
Along with Richard Mille, Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe also record the highest growth rates in brand interest year-over-year, with 26 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.
Founded in 2001, the Richard Mille brand is the fastest growing haute horlogerie brand (61% over last year), followed by Vacheron Constantin (26%), and Patek Philippe (10.2%).
And Stern said reliability and a local clientele is part of the reason Patek Philippe has not fallen victim to the problems plaguing the single currency euro area.
CNN: Patek Philippe boss: Quality is more important than growth
"A watch tells a lot about its owner, " said Reginald Brack, a New York-based entrepreneur and a collector and dealer of modern and vintage Rolex and Patek Philippes.
So it came as a surprise to connoisseurs recently when Patek Philippe, a smart Swiss watchmaker, announced that the company was testing silicon inside some of its luxury watches.
ECONOMIST: A luxury watchmaker is putting silicon in its timepieces
For Patek, we have to focus all our energy on what we know and what we like, and we need to work with people who know their city and know their clients.
FORBES: Patek Philippe Opens First Freestanding U.S. Boutique with Gearys Beverly Hills
It was one of only two known watches Patek Philippe made in platinum with a complex tourbillon movement--the word means "whirlwind" in French--that continually adjusts for error when the watch's position shifts.
More than that, La Chaux-de-Fonds is essentially the watchmaking capital of the world, home to the workshops or corporate headquarters of Rolex and Patek Philippe, Tissot and Girard-Perregaux, Ebel and Omega, many of which were founded here.
Included in the lot are a classic gold Royal Oak from Audemars Piguet, a white travel watch from Girard-Perregaux, and a striking azure chronograph from (no watch list is complete without it) Patek Phillippe.
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As with so many things discovered belatedly, the earliest examples of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus, the original 1970s debut models, now appear in auctions with elevated prices due to scarcity.
Of even more comfort to luxury brands, Patek Philippe found that half the people who bought its new Twenty-4 watch recently cited the glossy magazine it launched in 1996 as their only source of information.
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