An Ultra-Coveted Patek Philippe Is Heading To Auction This Fall
Phillips is teaming with Bacs & Russo on the sale of the super-rare Patek Philippe reference 1518.
Chasing down the finest luxury wristwatches on the market can sometimes feel like a conquest worthy of Indiana Jones: Whispers abound, sometimes the trail goes cold and occasionally, a true grail emerges. The stainless steel Patek Philippe reference 1518, one of just four ever made, is certainly grail-worthy.
Previously on the market earlier this year via private sale through Monaco Legends Auctions, luxury auction house Phillips is once again putting the insanely rare timepiece on the market, this time in partnership with Bacs & Russo. Phillips previously sold the same watch in 2016 for about $13.6 million at the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: FOUR, and as the auction house says, it carries considerable weight: “To this day, it is still the most expensive vintage Patek Philippe wristwatch ever sold at auction.”
One of just four ever produced on a stainless steel bracelet and dating back to 1943, the watch could now fetch anywhere from $9.9 to $19.9 million at auction, and those figures hardly seem to do it justice. Of the astounding timepiece, which was once part of the collection of watch and Ferrari enthusiast Ernst Schuster, Phillips said its importance is second to none.
“It redefined the market and ushered in a new era in watch collecting,” Aurel Bacs, a senior consultant at Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, said. “For seasoned collectors and newcomers alike, its return to auction marks a moment of rare opportunity.”
The 35mm perpetual calendar chronograph also sold at auction in Geneva in October 1995, and had appeared at auction dating back to 1989. When the watch went up for private sale earlier this year, Monaco Legend Auctions noted the show-stopping timepiece carried “a remarkable state of preservation and a clean, well-documented provenance.” Indeed, the combination of a perpetual calendar and a chronograph, plus its introduction at the peak of World War II, make it an almost impossibly historic and rare timepiece, and only 281 total (including the only four produced in stainless steel) were ever made, Phillips notes.
Phillips trumpets the return of the watch to the auction block, an occurrence that might not happen again for some time. November’s Geneva summit then, is suitably historic, the auction house said.
Philipps called the Patek Philippe reference 1518 one of the “unicorns of the collecting world: Watches so elusive that most collectors will never encounter one in person.” The company adds that “the steel 1518 offered this season by Phillips is arguably the best known of them all – not only for its wonderful condition, but because it’s the very watch that transformed the reference from an insider’s prize into a market-shaping icon.” Call it lofty praise, but consider the fact that this timepiece is nearly one-of-a-kind. Stay tuned for November auction results to see where the illustrious final price tag lands.