Business Breakdowns
· Matt Reustle
[00:00:00] S0: Yes. It's quite interesting, and you referenced the collectors, and I'm curious when it comes to something like this where it's wearable art, but there is the sense of, do you own your products, or do your products own you, and the fear of wearing something that's that expensive. So when you're dealing with collectors, do you think the majority of these are being put in cases, kind of sitting in safes or in closets, or whatever it might be? Or most of the collectors that you're talking to, wearing these on whether it's day-to-day or on a more regular basis, whatever it might be? What's your sense of that? And just dealing with a Patek and what you suggest because obviously, if you buy something like this, you want to wear it, but I think there's a fear that comes into play.
· John Reardon
[00:00:00] S1: Many Patek Philippe collectors take great pride in wearing their watches out there, and the beauty is not everyone is going to know what's on your wrist. I mean there's simple Calatravas from the 1950s that are worth $0.5 million, but for the uneducated eye, it looks like a $3,000 watch. And people are out there wearing these. And I absolutely love and respect when these things are seen out there in the wild. My eye is trained. It's what I'm looking for. I mean I walk into a room, of course, I'm looking at everyone's wrists and trying to assess what do people have. Yes, if you're wearing a Rolex covered in diamonds, you're screaming to the world, what you have, and that's the point of it. Yes, if you have a Richard Mille that you just bought $1.4 million, and it has 1 million different colors and bells and whistles, you're screaming to the world something very specific that's on your wrist. But when you wear a vintage classic chronograph, no one's going to know. It's going to be hidden under your cuff that's 33 millimeters of beauty that no one's going to know about. It's discrete. It's understated, and ultimately has more demand than those other watches over time.
· Matt Reustle
[00:00:00] S0: I love the understated luxuries that for the trained eye obvious, but for everyone else, a lot less obvious. You referenced a few times you worked at Patek Philippe. I'd love to just hear a little bit about what the experience was like, both being hired there. And also just inside the organization, how big is it? What is the culture like? I get some sense from the outside of what it's like, but how much did that match the inside? Anything you could share there would be fascinating.
· John Reardon
[00:00:00] S1: Sure. In my period of time, there was from 2000 to 2010, so it was a very different era, but it was also a very important era of transition of the company from being this unknown. I remember telling my parents and might work for Patek Philippe. The first answer is who, what, where. They had no clue. It's why can't you get a job at Rolex, I think I heard, and ultimately, it was an adventure moving into the company of Patek Philippe and just to share a quick story. I thought it was a joke at first when I received a phone call from a headhunter saying that, "We're interested in hiring for an important Swiss company to work for the distributor as a sales rep in New York." I was working at Sotheby's at the time. So I was quite happy with my job, but I remember telling this headhunter, "Unless you're Patek Philippe, the conversation is over." And she said, "Yes, it's Patek Philippe." So I said, "Let's talk." It was a dream come true. Even though I still thought it was a joke because Patek Philippe doesn't call, but after a long series of interviews with the headhunter, I eventually was able to meet the principals of Patek Philippe in New York, and I remember, wow, countless interviews with the President and with the Vice President, Tania Edwards, who happens to be my colleague and co-founder of Collectability. We still work together to this day. Tania was Vice President and Head of Marketing of Patek Philippe U.S.A at the time. And going through that interview process with these individuals, I felt like I was trying to get into the CIA, and then it took another 6 months until I eventually had a job offer. And then finally, I made the jump.
· Matt Reustle
[00:00:00] S0: Once working inside the organization, again, any rough size of how many employees are there? How much is going on in the U.S. versus in Switzerland? And anything else that you can share there?
· John Reardon
[00:00:00] S1: Sure. In New York, it was small. I mean it was also the service center, so it's distribution, and it was all sales and education for Patek Philippe U.S.A. was based out of the Henri Stern Watch Agency as it is today. I think it was 48 people at the time. And today, I think it's 100. So it has doubled in size, but it was a small culture. You truly felt during my time that you worked for a family company. You truly felt like the Stern family had your back. And I remember being told, "Every decision that you make, everything that you do when you speak to a client and consumer or a retailer, imagine that Mr. Stern is standing there with you." This omniscient presence of Philippe Stern judging everything that you say and everything that you do, which was overwhelming, but also comforting, and you just knew what to say. You tried to always do the right thing. You tried to be there for the customer at all times was always put at the focus of every decision. And that was a lot of fun during that period of time. It felt like a small company. And what people perceived as the outside, as I looked at the outside and just respected this company so much, it turned out to be true when I was in the inside. And that was just a beautiful thing. I absolutely to this day, I don't work for the company anymore, but I do feel as though I still represent the values of the company as best as I can, and it's going to be around a lot longer than any of us. Patek Philippe is here to stay.