If you have been holding your breath for the 5711 you put your name down for seven years ago, it’s time to listen to Queen Elsa and let it go – alternatively, you’ll suffocate. Like all watch manufacturers in these unprecedented times, Patek Philippe has taken a hit to its productivity for the year, enduring lockdowns and, later, staggered workforces and interrupted production. The brand has also had to adapt the way they engage with and present to consumers – allowing authorised dealers to list their watches online and recently launching their first watch via a digital announcement. By no means is the esteemed brand in financial trouble, as their years of success have built a nice fiscal cushion, or “a lot of reserves of cash”, as Thierry Stern puts it, for moments such as this. But for a brand that does not produce Swatch Group-level quantities, many cannot help but wonder what this means for watch availability and production quantity for this year. In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, Thierry Stern has provided us the answer: Patek Philippe production is down 30 per cent, due to COVID-19. Thierry Stern explains, “For Patek, we have a lot of reserve…
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