The 1518’s historical importance is a result of Patek flexing its extraordinary watchmaking muscle. When the 1518 was birthed in 1941, it was the first wristwatch to ever combine a perpetual calendar and a chronograph. And it took a full 40 years for the rest of the industry to catch up, with Ebel and IWC introducing their own perpetual chronos in the 1980s.
Visually, this watch represents everything that makes Patek so special. “It’s considered aesthetically the most Patek Philippe of Patek Philippe watches,” said Reardon. “It’s just such a balanced dial, as true form follows function. And when people think of a complicated Patek Philippe, they think of this style layout.”
A critically endangered species of watch
Patek only ever made 281 of the 1518—a small number, sure, but not small enough on its own to convince a collector to fork over $20 million or more. The important distinction here is that this newly listed watch comes in steel. Of the 281 1518s, only four were made in the metal. “In steel, the watch is a holy grail, as nearly all of the 1518 production was in gold,” Gruenberg said.
Wind Vintage founder Eric Wind told me that there are rumors of a fifth steel 1518 sitting somewhere in a private collection. Either way, it only requires one hand to count the number of this variation in existence.
This is why the price of this watch defies logic. In a vacuum, gold is more valuable than steel, but when it comes to watch collecting, scarcity beats material in this case. Also, there’s something oddly sexy about this watch coming in steel. With the 1518, Patek set a new horological bar and rightly decided that fancy gold was the right material to house such an achievement. The steel 1518s, then, lean into the dichotomy of a prestigious, highly complicated movement encased by a laid-back material. It’s like seeing President Obama in a leather jacket versus a tuxedo. “A few years ago I would have told you that it’s by far the coolest watch ever made, the ultimate destination for any watch collector,” Paramico said. (That designation, he clarified, now has some competition thanks to the growth of the indie scene).
There are some tangible benefits to steel, too. “I’ve only had the chance to hold a steel 1518 once in my life,” Reardon said. (Think about that! An expert in the field who’s worked at Christie’s and Patek itself has only come across this watch once!) “And the first thing that you notice is the lack of weight [compared to the gold versions]. It’s such a light watch—it’s shocking to the senses.”
Where has this particular watch been?
Before landing at Monaco Legend, this 1518 went on a long and circuitous journey. For such a rare and valuable watch, there were quite a few people willing to part with it. For a certain stretch in the early ’80s, it sat unsold at a shop on 47th Street in New York City before a Swiss dealer bought it. Eventually, it came up for auction in 1989; the seller will be of note to fashion fans—it was Gerolamo Etro, the founder of the Italian luxury label Etro. From there, it was sold again in 1995 at Antiquorum and then made its way to Davide Parmegiani, co-chairman at Monaco Legend, in 2004. Parmegiani has had a hand in selling all four examples of the steel 1518, some of them more than once. “If there’s anyone that can sell this watch again, it’s Davide,” Reardon said. “He certainly knows the potential buyers.” Since 2004, the watch has changed hands twice, according to Hodinkee.
