The escape from Poland
The story began with Antoni Norbert Patek from Prawdzik, born in 1812 in Poland.
He commenced his carrier in the army which ended up with the revolt of the Polish army against the Russian. As thousands of soldiers, he left his country to join Switzerland through Germany and France.
1839 : The cooperation with Czapek
He started to live in Geneva when he met François Czapek, Watchmaker master. On the 1st of May 1839 they created the Patek, Czapek & Cie company to manufacture and to distribute luxury watches.
While Czapek was more dedicated to the watchmaking work Norbert Patek, was more involved in the business , looking for a new projects, innovations in order to develop the company business wise, definitely Norbert was more visionary.
1845 : The encounter with Philippe
When Norbert Patek went to attend a show about the watchmaking invention in Paris, he met a French watchmaker Adrien Philippe who will share his last inventions , the time set up and the winding process thanks to the support of a crown.
Further to their encounter, Patek understood that his future cannot be built with Czapeck anymore, they stopped their cooperation in 1845.
Patek continued his business adventure alone in the Patek & Cie company that he created till 1851 when he founded with Adrien Philippe the Patek Philippe & Cie.
The two partners will never leave each other. They started to create , to manufacture and to commercialize qualitative and luxury Patek Philippe time pieces over all the world that the high reputation was based on the high quality , the high end design and the precision. Among the prestigious clients were Elizabeth Queen of England as well as the Tiffany's & Co company from New York that was taking care of the Patek Philippe distribution over the US territory.
