The sprightly 65-year-old Philippe Stern is not losing the spring in his step as he prepares his son Thierry to take the house of Patek Philippe into the fourth generation under the ownership of the Stern family.
The only son of Stern (he also has a daughter) has been going through different departments in Patek Philippe in the past 15 years. Recently, one of his training grounds was China, where Stern junior was in charge of expansion strategy.
'When I was young I started with Japan and Hong Kong as new markets. Now for my son, China is a new market,' said the senior Stern.
Thierry Stern said: 'We will go slowly and surely. Our plan is to open in Shanghai. We'd like to set up our own boutique but we don't want to open [in too many cities] because we don't know how to supply them. We cannot support so many customers. We do not have the product [quantity]. We don't think we have to rush. We like to have one shop which has the whole collection.'
While there is still no date for when succession will take place, Stern junior is quick to assure that the business will keep ticking along regardless.
'People ask me if I will change things. I don't think there is a need to change anything. It will still go on like today. Everything works very well. We have a lot of people who trust us. As long as it goes like this, I don't see a need to change anything.'