Vintage Watches A Vintage Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Just Sold For $1 Million At A Small Auction; Here's What It Means

Last week – on July 4th, no less – a Patek Philippe ref. 2497 perpetual calendar sold at a small auction house in Madrid for $1.15 million (€1.06 million all-in). The pink gold Patek is just the seventh known of its kind, and proves what dealers and collectors have long known to be true: There are very few secrets in the world of vintage Patek or Rolex today. And that wasn't even the only result that had people pausing between hot dog bites last week. In the same sale, a pink gold Calatrava 96 sold for $89,000 (€82,500), probably a record for a pink gold 96. Across the continent, a Rolex Daytona ref. 6241 Paul Newman sold for $293,700 at a small auction outside Paris a few days earlier. 

The trio of big results got my head spinning. As Vince Lombardi might say, "What the hell is going on out there?" And was this really a million-dollar Patek?

In many ways, it's the story of what's happened to everything, everywhere: technology has made the entire world instantly connected to everything. But the specifics are where it gets more interesting.

Any semi-serious dealer is checking and getting daily notifications from a handful of platforms that aggregate auctions across the globe. And you can rest assured they've all got a saved search that's simply "Patek" (and common misspellings thereof if they're really savvy). These online aggregators make it pretty easy for anyone with a phone and half a brain to rummage around the corners of even the most obscure of auction houses. Instead of finding, then, it's evaluating these watches for condition, originality, and rarity that becomes most important.

"These pieces, especially from Patek, rarely go under the radar," vintage dealer Ignacio Coll of Ancienne Watches in Barcelona told me. I reached out to Coll because he posted a video where he traveled to Madrid to inspect and bid on both the million-dollar ref. 2497 and the 96.

According to the auction house, the 2497 perpetual calendar came from the original owner's family via a woman who inherited it from her husband, who owned a jewelry shop.

This wasn't just any 2497, but a first series in pink gold – most easily distinguished by its alternating Arabic numerals and Vichet case – just the seventh known. Last year, I wrote about Peter Knoll's pink gold 2497, which eventually sold for about $1.5 million. So we already know to expect big results for a 2497, especially a rare version like this.

As for the condition, the watch had been serviced by Patek some years ago, which the owner also confirmed. The first tell is the service crown. 

The dial is original, and Coll said that in his opinion, it had been sympathetically cleaned.

"The dial was still very nice though, and the market will accept this condition, especially for such a rare watch."

He said that while the enamel signature showed signs of cleaning, the calendar windows still had sharp angles. The case was also in good condition – while it's probably been polished, it still has its original angles and edges, most notably on the stepped lugs.

There was a lot of interest in the lot – about 12 phone bidders in addition to the written and advance bids. Of course, bidding also started at €30,000, so a few people probably thought they'd steal the watch for a hundred grand or so. No such luck!

The pace of bidding slowed at around €700,000 and two phone bidders went back and forth until hammering at €900,000, with an 18 percent buyer's premium bringing the all-in price to €1.06 million (plus VAT if you should be so lucky). The result isn't out of line with the market for a watch like this – especially with just two bidders chasing it at the end, it's not really a question of the "market," but how bad those two individuals want it on that particular day. 

Next, I asked Coll about the pink-on-pink Patek ref. 96 with Breguet numerals that sold for €82,500 just a few minutes later. A watch like this – pink gold case with matching pink dial, Breguet numerals, and early long signature – can make even the most hardened of souls believe in the divine again.

"That watch was so nice," Coll said, noticeably more excited. "The dial had never been touched." The case was a little soft and had been polished but still had deep hallmarks. He pointed in particular to a hallmark on the top left lug, which is normally a Portuguese import hallmark.

In the end, bidding for the ref. 96 was almost as fierce as for the 2497, with it selling for what I think is the highest price for a pink gold 96. Just last week we talked all about the Calatrava on Hodinkee Radio, and the consensus between Ben, Rich, and me seemed to be: yeah, they're small, but a special 96 (like this one) is truly something special.

"Collectors and dealers quickly feel that the watch is coming from an original owner," Coll said. "It's pure, it's honest, and if it's nice, people are excited to go for it." In this case, the auction house was Segre Madrid – far from the Geneva offices of the three or four big auction houses where you know every other collector is also combing through the biannual watch catalogs. You might get the feeling that you're the only one seeing the watch or bidding and get caught up in the moment, bidding higher than you first planned to. 

"Even I was bidding higher than I'd initially planned," Coll admitted. 

Auction aggregators have allowed even the smallest of houses to find bidders around the world. Meanwhile, bidders feel more empowered by their access to auctions, watches, and information. Everything has been democratized. While this is mostly good, there are also potential downsides. 

While even small houses might consign special vintage watches, they usually aren't watch experts, instead content to let the market do its work and collect their buyer's premium on the sale. 

Alessandro, another vintage dealer, traveled to Paris to see the watch in person. He later wrote that, while the watch was in honest condition it had a few issues that (in his opinion) made it such that "the final price no longer matched the true value of the piece."

"I am not really sure the buyer had inspected the watch, because as nice as it can be in pictures, in person under a loupe is a different story," he added.

Coll said the same to me about the 2497; while the dial presented nicely in person, it looked cleaner in the auction house's online photos.

The Internet, and auction aggregators specifically, have made watches and information accessible to anyone, and this is mostly a good thing. To be clear, there are also still deals to be, but it just gets harder every day, and they don't usually say "Patek" or "Rolex" on the dial. But, there's still expertise and an art to inspecting and evaluating these watches, and it often needs to be done in person. It's important to know what you don't know. 

After talking to Coll about the ref. 2497 and 96 for just 30 minutes, I picked up a number of things I hadn't gotten from online photos: Portuguese import hallmarks; a sympathetically cleaned but original dial; and the pure excitement in his voice from handling the pink-on-pink 96.

These are the little details that aggregators can never pick up, and that continue to make hunting and talking about vintage watches fun.

Thanks to Ignacio Coll of Ancienne Watches for sharing his expert opinion and images of the Patek 2497 and 96.