Unión Suiza & Patek Philippe

The origins date back to 1840, when Jaume Vendrell and Francisca Castellá established a jewelry store and workshop in Barcelona, just one year after Antoine Norbert de Patek and François Czapek founded Patek, Czapek & Cie in 1839.

Rarely can a history and relationship be established as parallel as the one maintained by the Unión Suiza and Patek Philippe for almost a century.

Unión Suiza is a brand originally from Barcelona, but it's no exaggeration to say that half of its heart is Swiss. The brand's name itself indicates this, and it's confirmed by truly extraordinary facts, such as the fact that the Vendrell family built their own watchmaking factory in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, with more than 400 employees.

Patek Philippe has always been distinguished by its loyalty to the historic retailers who have passed on Patek Philippe's values over the decades. Such is, and will remain, the strong relationship between Thierry Stern and the brothers Lluís, Xavier, Cesar, and David Vendrell, the last descendants of their family families and current leaders of these two historic watchmaking companies.

Four generations have now passed since the time of brothers Charles and Jean Stern and Carlos Vendrell at the helm of Patek Philippe and Unión Suiza, respectively. This is another key factor in the convergence between the two firms: their status as family businesses.

This privileged relationship between Unión Suiza and Patek Philippe has been maintained and strengthened for almost a century. One only needs to visit the imposing Unión Suiza store on Barcelona's Diagonal to immediately appreciate the space dedicated exclusively to Patek Philippe, a setting that reproduces all the aesthetic codes of the Geneva-based firm.