Added Value

When you’re looking at luxury watches as an investment, a popular idea rings true: you could never go wrong with Patek Philippe.

- Celine Yap

In November 2017, Phillips concluded The Hong Kong Watch Auction: Five, marking HK$109 million in sales, the highest sale total for any watch auction in Asia that year. It also broke the record for any wristwatch sold in Asia: a Patek Philippe World Time Ref 2523 which went under the hammer for HK$22.3 million. Another Patek Philippe, the Ref 5004 perpetual calendar split seconds chronograph, became the most expensive white gold Ref 5004 to have been sold at auction.

This followed a series of ultra high-profile auctions where even the auctioneer was floored by the market’s enthusiasm. Its Geneva Watch Auction: Four on 12 November 2016 was particularly memorable, as Phillips sold a Patek Philippe Ref 1518 perpetual calendar in stainless steel to a private collector for a jaw-dropping SFr11.02 million, marking the highest result for any Patek Philippe wristwatch at auction.

Why would someone pay so much for a watch like that? Is it simply because it’s a Patek Philippe? Because it’s a stainless steel model? Because it’s a vintage watch that’s long out of production? Because it’s an investment? The correct answer is: all of the above. And perhaps the better question is, why are Patek Philippe watches so valuable?