WRIST CANDY
Ready to invest in your first collector’s item? One brand leads the pack, and that’s Patek…
While some watch brands focus their energies on issuing new models, Patek Philippe continues to pride itself on its exclusivity, and it’s still the ultimate piece of wrist candy for anyone looking to make a serious purchase or start a collection. Indeed, thanks to its intricate complications and popularisation of movements including perpetual calendars and minute repeaters, Patek is easily the most successful watch brand at the auction houses. Among the world's top ten most expensive watches ever sold at auction, seven are Pateks, with rival brands Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and Breguet a very distant second.
In the course of celebrating its 180th anniversary in 2019, the brand made two record-breaking auction appearances. Its oneof-a kind piece for the Only Watch auction, the
Ref. 6300A-010 Grandmaster Chime (pictured), a mode of its most complicated wristwatch in a unique steel version, became the most expensive watch in the world after a bidding war that topped out at US$24.2 million. The brand’s most complex wristwatch features 20 complications, including five acoustic functions, two of which are patented global premières: an alarm that strikes the preprogrammed alarm time and a date repeater that sounds the date on demand.
In the same month, Christie’s Hong Kong sold a Patek Philippe L’ Heure Bleue Ref. 2523 for more than US$9 million, making it the most expensive wristwatch ever to be auctioned in Asia. So if you’re looking for an investment piece, Patek really should be your first port of call. And who knows, one of these two extraordinary watches might even make it back onto the auction circuit… patek.com