In 2024, based on the 2021 publication “Antoni Patek. Watchmaker to the Kings”, a film directed by Krzysztof Paluszyński was made.
“Antoni Patek – Patriot and Watchmaker” is a dramatized documentary about one of the most remarkable Poles of the nineteenth century – a soldier, émigré and entrepreneur who combined the experience of uprising struggle with building a firm of global reach. The film places Patek’s biography within the economic and social history of the age: emigration, prestige and identity beyond Poland’s borders.
The protagonist is Antoni Patek – a participant in the November Uprising and an engaged representative of the Great Emigration. After settling in Switzerland he developed an enterprise that gave rise to the renowned Patek Philippe company. His watches won the recognition of European elites, reaching figures such as Queen Victoria of Britain, Queen Louise of Denmark and King Victor Emmanuel III. They were not only synonyms of the highest quality, but also artistic expressions of Polish identity, full of national and religious symbols – including likenesses of Polish heroes, battle scenes recalling Poland’s greatest victories, coats of arms of Polish families and images of the Virgin Mary.
The film presents Patek as an active campaigner who supported compatriots forced to live in exile and helped sustain an environment that preserved Polish culture and the dream of independence. His name became recognized across Europe, building prestige and reminding the world of a nation without its own state. Among the historians and specialists taking part in the production was also Beniamin Czapla.