Switzerland is home to the finest watchmakers. After the fall of the November Uprising, Antoni Patek emigrated to this country and launched a company producing the best, most luxurious and most expensive watches in the world.

In 1830, the November Uprising broke out in the Polish lands seized by the Russians. The patriotic Poles wanted to free themselves from the oppressive Russian Empire. One of them was Antoni Patek who after the collapse of the uprising emigrated to Geneva, Switzerland.

From wine to watches

The young immigrant wanted to learn painting and enrolled in studies led by Alexander Calame. Education cost money, and living in Geneva was not the cheapest, so Patek started to trade wine and spirits.

Earning money as a trader, Antoni met Geneva watchmakers. He studied their work and realized that he could successfully decorate their watches. So, he started buying watchcases, made beautiful engravings and sold them. It brought him a lot of money and he abandoned the wine trade.

Elegance and innovation

He decided to start a business with another Pole, Franciszek Czapek – and they established in 1839 the company “Patek, Czapek & Cie”. Poles successfully ran the enterprise and employed new watchmakers who had to emigrate from Poland. Each watch was a small piece of art, but it cost a lot of money.

Six years later, Czapek left the company and started his own business. Meanwhile, Patek entered into a collaboration with Andrien Philippe. This French watchmaker created a watch moved by a crown, so that it was no longer required to wind the watch with a key. In 1851, the Patek company changed its name to “Patek, Philippe & Cie”. It produced not only pocket but also wrist luxury watches.

$ 24 million watch

The company won its recognition at the world exhibition in London in 1851 when a Patek’s watch was bought for Queen Victoria. Products of his brand were later owned by Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Tsar Nicholas II, Pablo Picasso or Elton John. The most expensive watch “Patek, Philippe & Cie” was bought in 1933 by the banker Henry Graves. In 2014 it was sold for USD 24 million.

Antoni Patek, despite his success, had not forgotten about occupied Poland. He supported independence movements in Poland and helped refugees fleeing the threat of the Russian Empire. Also, he subsidized Polish associations in Switzerland.