Over 80 years after it first left the Patek Philippe workshops, the record-breaking stainless steel Patek Philippe 1518 will once again cross the auction block – offered by Phillips on 8–9 November 2025, at Decade One (2015-2025) Auction.
Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo announced the sale of one of the most legendary and important wristwatches ever made: a stainless-steel Patek Philippe reference 1518. Introduced in 1941, the reference 1518 was the world’s first perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch model.
We went to London in 2016 to preview a few pieces of the ‘Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: Four’. Probably the most awaited piece among the lots was a steel Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 – one of only four known examples in stainless steel. It was sold for CHF 11,002,000 – a record-breaking amount that made it the most expensive wristwatch ever sold at auction at the time and the first to break the eight-figure barrier.
To this day, it is still the most expensive vintage Patek Philippe wristwatch ever sold at auction. It will return to the Phillips saleroom this November during the Decade One (2015-2025) Auction, with an estimate of CHF 8,000,000 to 16,000,000.
Learn more about the piece from the London preview back then here and a more recent pink gold 1518 here or the ‘pink on pink’ from the OAK Collection here.
Source: press release. Photo credits: Phillips. Loupiosity.com
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