Christie’s is organizing a Patek Philippe selling exhibition that is historic in scale.

An astounding 300 vintage watches will be available in NYC at Rockefeller Center for only 11 days, July 13-23. Exceptionally rare watches, including many fresh to market pieces, will be available for immediate purchase priced from $5’000 to well over $5m. The Christie’s exhibition is taking place at the same time at the official Patek Philippe ‘Art of Watches’ Grand Exhibition that will take place at Cipriani New York from July 13-23.

In order to find out more we had the privilege of getting exclusive early insight by none other than John Reardon, who is not only the head of Christies watches but also a well known Patek aficionado and expert in order to better understand what exactly Christies is putting on for its collectors, clients, the watch world and public.

(We are extremely grateful and want to thank John Reardon who came up with the entire content of this interview).

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What is the Patek Philippe Vintage Watch Selling Exhibition?

Reardon: The concept for the Christie’s exhibition is quite simple. With thousands of Patek Philippe Collectors and enthusiasts converging on New York in July, it is the perfect time to celebrate all things Patek Philippe and offer collectors the chance to see and purchase exceptional museum quality watches. The demand for purchasing vintage watches is now higher than ever before and this exhibition offers buyers the opportunity to own a piece of Patek Philippe’s history at all price points.

Imagine going to the Patek Philippe Museum and being able to ask the purchase price of each watch, try on a few pieces, and even possibly go home with a few treasured acquisitions. Of course this is not possible at THE museum but Christie’s is pleased to offer people a chance to experience of seeing, assessing, and purchasing a very large selection of vetted and authenticated Patek Philippe vintage watches from the mid 19th century through the late 20th century within their own NY galleries.

The goal of the Christie’s exhibition is to educate new collectors on the intricacies of assessing vintage watch condition, understanding the vintage watch market, and learning about how to collect vintage watches and focus on building collections. A series of tours, lectures, and watchmaking classes will support this initiative and complement the mission of the official Patek Philippe exhibition being hosted nearby at Cipriani.

What is your favorite part of the exhibition?

Reardon: I have always wanted to see a complete verticals of Patek Philippe watches presented in a way that one can see and compare the development of key complications. The ability to see firsthand the ‘family tree’ of Patek Philippe complicated watches is something that many only dream of seeing but now it will be finally be possible during our exhibition. 

This is absolutely my favorite part of curating this exhibition. For chronographs, visitors can see the development in the 20^th century from the 130 moving on to the 530, 533, 591, 1579, 1463, and the split seconds 1436. For perpetual chronographs we have four 1518s and then a wide selection of 2499s with examples in each series. With calendars, we show the development starting with two examples of early triple calendar 96s and moving on to the presentation of superlative examples of the 1526, 2497, 2438, 3448, and 3450.

And the icing on the cake is the total production run of the minute repeaters highlighted by 7 early minute repeating wristwatches and nearly the entire run of modern discontinued minute repeaters, many with unique variants. Combined with special sections of Patek Lemania chronograph verticals, Advanced Research watches, Nautilus, Ellipse, Calatrava, clocks, this exhibition has something that can peak the interest of the most jaded of all collectors – we even have a Patek Philippe singing bird box on offer!

What can people expect when they visit Christie’s?

Reardon: First I encourage visitors to NYC to attend the ‘Art of Watches Grand Exhibition’ at Cipriani. This exhibition is not to be missed and will open the world of Patek Philippe’s historic and modern production. After visiting the Grand Exhibition for a few hours, I suggest a visit to our selling exhibition (a short walk away) to see Christie’s offering of timepieces lavishly presented throughout the galleries of 20 Rockefeller Plaza. 

Tell us about some of the watches that will be available for the private sale?

Reardon: All but approximately two dozen of the watches will be available for private sale. Some collectors and some families will not let go of their watches/heirlooms at any price and I am forever grateful that we have had the honor of taking some pieces on loan that few people have ever seen before.

Most notably, we will have James Ward Packard’s Patek Philippe Walking Stick on view for the first time publicly. This exceptional piece features a Patek Philippe watch embedded onto the silver knob of a walking stick with a movement that is engraved with Packard’s name.

Also from Packard, we have his 18k gold Patek Philippe ring watch that will be on view for the first time. Other ‘unicorn watches’ that are not for sale include a Patek Philippe two tone ‘Reverso’ cased wristwatch, a 3448 in white gold case ‘Senza Luna’ with a confirmed extract from Patek Philippe, and an exceptional collection of early Patek Philippe minute repeaters.

The 300 watches available for private sale are from various sources around the world, many purchased from Christie’s decades ago and many from the original owners or families. In a world where collectors dream of owning a fresh to market watch in as-found condition, the offerings of this sale will not disappoint.

Can you share some of the highlights from the concurrent online auction?

Reardon: At the same time of the exhibition we will be presenting the Patek Philippe only online auction on view at Rockefeller Center. The highlights of this 85 lot sale include an impressive assembly of pocket watches, enamels, time only watches, and an impressive fresh to market example of a 2438 perpetual calendar at an estimate of 150,000 to 250,000 USD.

You worked at Patek Phillipe in New York for several years and are very familiar with the brand. How important a milestone is it that Patek is coming to NY for its global exhibition?

Reardon: I had the pleasure of working for Patek Philippe USA for over 9 years and admit it was one of the greatest jobs one could ever dream of having (outside of the auction world of course). I worked on the NY and LA grand exhibitions and I am so glad to see the grand exhibition concept finally come back to the US, bigger and better than before.

From what I have seen, this exhibition at Cipriani will be a once in a lifetime event and the curation, presentation, and events will be second to none. It is amazing seeing NY as the center of the watch world for just a few days! Our humble Christie’s exhibition is simply the unofficial gift shop, complete with 70M USD in inventory.

How will the pricing work at Christies Patek sale?

Reardon: Our pricing model is all-in for this selling exhibition. You see a price of 12,500 USD on a watch and that will be the total price paid not including tax. No buyers premium or additional fees will be charged. We even take credit card up to a certain level.

Since Tiffany is based in NY and Patek has an incredible history with them – can we expect to see many double signed dials of Tiffany /Patek at the selling exhibition?

Reardon: Of the 300 plus watches we will have on offer, I can think of at least 15 that will have the coveted Tiffany & Co. signature.

If money was no object, what would you buy?

Reardon: This is a dream question and I was just debating with a collector friend this fictional dilemma. For the same money, I would have a tough time deciding between buying a complete vertical of Patek Philippe perpetual calendars (1518, then one of each of the four series of 2499s) or the Stephen Palmer Grand Complication from 1898* that we have available for sale. I think I would choose the Palmer.

Below I show only a small selection of what will be offered at the Patek Philippe Christies selling exhibition. These four are my favourites so far:

*(Credit: Hodinkee).

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Steel 1463 with Roman numerals.

A fine white gold 3428 with Enamel dial. For a similar example in platinum please see our post here.

A very rare black dial in enamel 2526 with in gold.

The last gold watch we show is a 1463 with Breguet numeral and fine bracelet.