Sold! $31M for world’s most expensive watch

A closeup of Patek Philippe's Grandmaster Chime ref. 6300. (Only Watch)

Over the weekend, history was made in a record-shattering watch auction in Geneva.

During the Saturday sale, Patek Philippe broke the record for the world’s most expensive watch with a hammer price of $31 million.

An Audemars Piguet also sold for more than a million dollars for the first time, while watches by Hermès, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton all fetched six-figure hammer prices. Every lot was sold, with many more than doubling their pre-sale estimates.

There was an electric energy in the Christie’s salesroom at the Four Seasons Hôtel des Bergues, where the eighth edition of the biannual Only Watch auction was held.

The room was jampacked with some 300 watch brand executives, bidders armed with auction paddles, collectors, influencers, press, and seemingly every salesperson that Christie’s could manage to put at the end of a telephone line for bids coming in by phone.

In just over two hours, the auction had raised over $38 million by selling 50 timepieces—coming close to matching, in a single session, the total of $41 million raised in all seven prior editions of the sale combined.

Founded in 2005 by Luc Pettavino, president of the Monaco-based Association Monégasque Contre les Myopathies, the Only Watch auction had raised some $41 million prior to this year’s event, with all proceeds going to the charitable Association to benefit the fight against Duchenne muscular dystrophy, thanks to 50 participating watch brands who each donate a one-of-a-kind timepiece sold without commission or reserve price.

“The brands open their hearts by donating the fruit of their work,” Pettavino said at the start of the auction. “Only Watch is about creating beauty to do good.”

The auction has enjoyed the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco who, since its beginning, has generously supported the event.

In 2017, the prince even tried his hand at auctioneering by bringing down the hammer on the final lot.

Only Watch has also gained from occupying a prime spot on the Geneva fall calendar, just two days after the award ceremony of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the annual so-called “Oscars of Watchmaking,” and ahead of the busy November watch and jewelry auctions.

Last week, building momentum for the auction, Pettavino was awarded the Grand Prix’s Special Jury Prize and given a standing ovation for his role as a unifying force in the industry.

For Pettavino, the cause animating Only Watch is deeply personal: his son Paul suffered from muscular dystrophy, ultimately dying of the disease in 2016, at age 20.

Since 2005, the extraordinary energy and goodwill that Pettavino has brought to his charity auction has turned it into a major industry event. (Artnet News)