This Is the Second Most Expensive Vintage Wristwatch Ever Sold at Auction
Over the weekend, during a flurry of major auctions in Geneva, a Patek Philippe 1518 in steel sold for a whopping $17.6 million. That made it the second most expensive vintage wristwatch ever sold at auction, as well as the highest auction result for a Patek wristwatch.
While the Patek certainly stole the headlines, there were plenty more big winners during a busy weekend in Geneva. Here are all the most notable timepieces that hammered for jaw-dropping sums.
Patek Philippe is well known for its accomplishments in the perpetual calendar space. In 1941 year, the brand became the first to combine the feature with a chronograph in a wristwatch—a feat that took its competitors years to replicate. The 1518 was the first in a series of wristwatches boasting that ultra-fine and technically challenging one-two punch of complications. Of course, a fancy feature like a perpetual calendar was typically accompanied by an equally champagne-and-caviar-esque metal like gold. However, during the 1518’s production run between 1941 to 1954, Patek made just four examples of the watch in humble steel. That rarity, in addition to the pleasantly paradoxical nature of one of Patek’s grandest complications housed in a bang-around material, made this piece historic.
After this watch sold for $11.4 million in 2016, it was briefly the most expensive wristwatch in the world (before Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona claimed that title in 2017 by selling for $17.8 million). The latest auction result might not have reclaimed that title, but it came mighty close. The final sale price of $17.6 million is far and away the biggest total of the weekend.
About the record: This is the second most expensive vintage wristwatch ever sold at auction. You’ll likely notice there are several qualifiers there. The most expensive watch ever sold is a modern Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime reference 6300A that went for $31 million in 2019. (Although most folks will tell you that charity auctions often have inflated results because people want to support good causes; still $31 million is a mighty number). The most expensive vintage timepiece ever sold, meanwhile, is still the Henry Graves Patek Philippe Supercomplication pocket watch that sold for $24 million in 2014. That would make this Patek 1518 the fourth most expensive watch ever sold, but only just short of the Newman when it comes to vintage wristwatches at auction.
