News Last September, Thierry Stern, President of Patek Philippe, hosted the official opening ceremony of the Patek Philippe Institute Shanghai, the first institute of its kind located outside the watchmaker’s Geneva workshops. With this opening, the company further extends its commitment to customer service in China. This follows the grand opening of the Maison Patek Philippe and upgraded Service Center in Shanghai in 2012. The establishment of Patek Philippe Institute Shanghai is the embodiment of Patek Philippe’s Values and Quality Seal, a commitment to lifelong servicing and restoration for all timepieces, forever preserving their reliability, generation after generation.
The vigorous demand for customer services, the increasing volume of Patek Philippe watches sold to Chinese customers, and the challenging task of recruiting watchmakers in China all triggered the birth of Patek Philippe Institute Shanghai.
Spanning over 900 square meters, the Shanghai Service Center in Yifeng Galleria can accommodate nearly 30 after-sales employees, including the watchmakers and customer coordinators, as well as eight new apprentices recruited from the newly opened Patek Philippe Institute Shanghai. During a strict recruitment process that lasted about one month, eight apprentices, including four males and four females, passed the tests and were accepted to the program. The curriculum was designed as a two-year program divided into four stages. The apprentices will need to complete a total of 3,500 hours courses consisting of Watchmaking Theory and Practice, as well as English. They will be tested at each stage until the qualification is achieved. Apprentices who have completed the full program will receive a qualification which is equivalent to the Patek Philippe level 2 watchmaker training, allowing them to work directly in the Customer Service Center on watches with basic mechanical, automatic and quartz movements.
October 07, 2013
