Published: Thursday 20th May 2021
The curious thing about previewing watch auctions is that, outside of a few big-ticket showpiece items, it s pretty difficult to predict which watches are going to catch the expert eye of collectors, and see the price rocket skyward.
That s why we try our best here at Square Mile to avoid getting into a game of chance and instead focus on a little bit of education about the icons of the past and hand-select the models we d like to own if we won the lottery tomorrow.
However, that being said, we were quietly confident in our Geneva Watch Auction XIII preview that the incredibly rare Patek Philippe Ref. 5711P was going to have all the collectors clamouring to win this elusive prize. As it turns out, we were half right: it sold in the end for CHF567,000, nearly 50% more than the top end of its estimate. But that figure was blown out of the water by the equally rare Patek Philippe Calatravone Ref. 570.