Although the watch industry has calmed down considerably from the worst excesses of the pandemic, the demand for exclusive watches remains very high. Recently, Christie’s set a new price record by selling the most expensive watch ever at online auction.
Not surprisingly, the record went to Patek Philippe and their Patek Philippe Grand Complications Sky Moon Tourbillon , ref 6002G-001. The watch was sold for no less than 5.8 million dollars (over 60 million SEK) through Christie’s Hong Kong. Patek already holds several other records when it comes to expensive watches – both the most expensive pocket watch and the most expensive watch sold at auction are from Patek Philippe. Discussing value for money is almost impossible because the price is so far removed from the function. But Patek Philippe undoubtedly has a history and world-leading watchmaking expertise to back up its prices.
Patek Philippe Grand Complications Sky Moon Tourbillon
The Sky Moon Tourbillon was created in 2001 with the aim of bringing together some of the world’s most advanced features -… complications – in a format that could be carried on the arm.
The original model, reference 5002, was made in platinum. In 2013, it was replaced by reference 6002G which was instead made from a large piece of white gold with a striking blue dial with handmade cloisonné and champlevé enameling. 2021 saw a variant – ref 6002R – in rose gold and brown enameling. It is unclear how many watches were produced, but it is likely to be a maximum of a few hundred.
The Sky Moon Tourbillon is housed in a 44mm case that is double-sided. The front is equipped with a retrograde perpetual calendar with dates, months, days of the week, leap year indication and moon phases. The reverse side houses a stunning starry sky and shows the sidereal time , sidereal time, and extremely accurate moon phases. Sidereal time is a way of expressing days based on the positions of the so-called fixed stars in the sky, rather than the position of the sun, and therefore gives an astronomically more accurate indication of time (although the difference is only about 4 minutes). The movement is driven by a tourbillon, which, in Patek Philippe’s discreet way, is not displayed in the usual way.
The watch is equipped with a minute repeater which can record the time down to the minute through two clocks embedded in the watch. This is one of the most difficult complications in a watch and can take 200-300 hours of work to assemble.
In many ways, the Sky Moon Tourbillon is a reminder of Patek Philippe’s heritage. For example, Patek Philippe was the first watch brand to mass-produce wristwatches with perpetual calendars. minute repeaters has been on the company’s watch since its inception almost 200 years ago.
The Sky Moon Tourbillon is actually not Patek Philippe’s most complicated watch. That title is held by the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime, a watch introduced in 2014. The watch takes 100,000 hours to manufacture and only 7 watches have ever been made.
