One of the true holy grails of watch collecting, a Patek Philippe 1518 in stainless steel, may soon be the most expensive watch ever sold, with Monaco Legend Group offering one of just four steel examples of the legendary timepiece for private sale with an asking price “in excess of $20,000,000.”
It originally retailed for $2,265 in 1941.
The current record for the most expensive vintage watch belongs to Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona, which sold for $17.8 million in 2017.
Patek introduced the 1518 in 1941, becoming the world’s first perpetual calendar with chronograph. Just 281 were made, most of which came in yellow gold, less than 60 in rose gold and just four in stainless steel.
Hodinkee’s Ben Clymer explained the somewhat counter-intuitive nature of the simplistic steel becoming so much more valuable than the other materials produced for the same reference: “Watch collecting is about rarity and style, and nothing is more rare than a complicated watch in a simple metal.”
Clymer goes on to call it “arguably the most complicated wristwatch in such a metal.”
Adding to its significance is its production in the midst of World War II.
Davide Parmegiani, Chairman of Monaco Legend Group, who has handled all four steel Reference 1518s, told Hodinkee, "It will always be the most sought-after billionaire toy … In 5 to 8 years, the watch will be worth $50 million.”
The last time a steel 1518 appeared at public auction was in 2016, when Phillips sold the first of the four produced for more than $11 million, setting a record at the time for the most expensive wristwatch ever sold.
The watch offered by Monaco Legend Group is serial-numbered 3, and, according to Hodinkee, together with the No. 1 serial number piece sold in 2016, are the two finest of the four.
For years, the Patek Ref. 1518 in Steel, Serial Number 508475(3), sat unsold in a shop on 47th Street in New York with an asking price of $4,500.
In the ‘80s, a Swiss watch dealer discovered it, soon selling it to well-known watch collector Luigi Calvasina for a small profit, according to Parmegiani, who told Hodinkee.
Calvasina held onto the watch for a few years, eventually selling for $10,000 to Grazia Pisa of Pisa Watches. He placed it in his Milan retail location window, where it would pique the attention of Gerolamo Etro, the founder of the luxury fashion house.
In 1989, Etro sold it at auction for $281,600 — the first time any of the Patek 1518 in steel ever sold publicly.
Just five years later it was sold privately for $531,869.
Parmegiani bought the watch in 2004 for around $1.1 million. It has since sold twice.
Since the last sale of a stainless steel Ref. 1518, the record books were rewritten by Newman’s Daytona, but nearly a decade since its last sale, the rare Patek has a chance to reclaim the throne.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.