Eric Clapton's Patek
One Of The Rarest & Most Sought-After Watches Is Up For Grabs
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Patek Philippe
"Since it was in the possession of such a well-known celebrity, the collecting community thought it would never appear publicly again..."Imagine the quintessential complicated watch, made by the world's finest watchmaker, in the most valuable of metals, having belonged to one of rock 'n' roll's greatest living icons and after a quarter century of mystery surrounding its whereabouts, it’s actually coming up for sale. This is what's happening at Christie's in Geneva on November 12th.
A Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph (Reference 2499), cased in platinum, made at the personal behest of Patek owner and then president Philippe Stern, which was never intended to be sold and yet somehow ended up in the hands of Mr. Eric Clapton, is the watch in question.
It is, without a doubt, the most important watch to be sold from a private collection in the past 25 years. Only one other example of the 2499 exists in platinum, and it remains in the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. No one knows exactly how Clapton ended up with this watch -- it wasn’t from the original auction in 1989 -- but we do know that he’s had it in his extensive collection for years.
Since it was in the possession of such a well-known celebrity, the collecting community thought it would never appear publicly again -- that is, until it showed up in lot No. 151 at Christie's Geneva. The pre-sale estimates for this exceedingly rare watch range from $2 million to $4 million. There has simply never been such buzz surrounding a watch sale.
Up Close with the Patek Philippe Platinum 2499 owned by Eric Clapton from HODINKEE on Vimeo.
