Today, I’m going to be talking to you about Patek Philippe, or as I refer to it, Patek. Arguably the king of all watchmaking. Arguably the Rolls Royce of all watchmaking.
I tend to discount Patek a little bit because I’m somewhat biased towards other brands. But nevertheless, it’s very hard to argue the fact that Patek is, indeed, the king of all brands, and simply because of just a few achievements really, if you go back in the history of what Patek has done over the last 180 years now.
What do I have with me today? I have an oldie, but a goodie, a watch that most would say is nothing special, myself included, which is the Patek Philippe Ellipse model, or the Golden Ellipse model.
I brought the coveted 5070 chronograph in rose gold, and I bought something that’s new and exciting and very, very shiny. That’s a 5980 rose gold chronograph completely done with factory diamonds and baguettes. And we’ll get to that one last that’s sort of that wow factor Patek.
Patek Philippe Historic Timeline
You know me, I love history and not just watch history, I love all history. So, I would like to run through some of the achievements first that Patek has achieved in the last almost 200 years. And I guess the best thing to do is to start with patents and inventions that Patek Philippe has started with.
1868, it created the first Swiss wristwatch. I believe it was done for some countess from Hungary. I don’t remember her name, so don’t quote me on that.
1881, patented a precision regulator.
1889 patents its perpetual calendar movement for pocket watches.
Following in 1902, they patented their double chronograph, which was a big deal if you ask me.
In 1916, they made the very first complicated ladies’ watch. It was a five-minute repeater.
In 1923, and this is probably my favorite, they made the first split-second chronograph wristwatch. That’s a big deal. Those are the watches that fetch ridiculous amounts of money at auction.
Of course, that didn’t stop. In 1925, they made the first perpetual calendar wristwatch.
Obviously worth mentioning, 1933, when they made the world’s most complicated watch, known as the Henry Grave super complication.
This was the most complicated watch until 1989, by the way, when they made another watch, making it the most complicated watch. And that was the caliber 89.
And of course, in 1962, they created a tourbillon movement that achieved the world’s timekeeping precision record for mechanical watches at the Geneva observatory. I’m going to stop here because there is more from Patek.
You guys can read about this on Patek Philippe’s website which has a beautiful history line to show you all the stuff with images. But the reason I stopped in 1962, because shortly after 1962, in 1968, is when this model was born. And this is the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse.
Influencers
Oftentimes companies and products are made famous by famous people at various times, and today, when you think of product placement on various celebrities, you can have a celebrity on Instagram, sell you a line of makeup or a skinny tea or anything for that matter. Oftentimes it’s the other way around where celebrities can make a product famous.
But I think in the case of Patek Philippe, it was the celebrities or the famous people of the world that chose to wear Patek Philippe for obvious reasons. A good example in today’s world would be Kim Kardashian. Her products are flying off the shelves, whether it’s makeup, clothing, or any other accessories for ladies, they absolutely eat them up.
I’m going to drop a few names that I’m sure most of you guys are familiar with if Patek Philippe was going back 200 years.
A good start would be the Beatles. Most of the Beatles wore Patek Philippe, you had Eric Clapton, you had Clark Gable, Pablo Picasso, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Wagner, and Andy Warhol, are just some of the famous artists that wore Patek Philippe.
Entrepreneurs like Walt Disney and JP Morgan wore a Patek Philippe. Then of course you had the super smarts, like Albert Einstein. Leo Tolstoy wore a Patek Philippe along with Nobel prize winner, and Rudy Kipling.
How about the fact that the Dalai Llama wore Patek Philippe, that I know for a fact.
Politicians- Vladimir Putin owned a Patek Philippe, and two popes wore a Patek Philippe. John F. Kennedy, can’t forget him. General Patton of the United States Army, is near and dear to my heart. George Bush, Lindon B. Johnson, and Nelson Mandela wore a Patek Philippe.
And then of course there was royalty. Prince Charles wore a Patek Philippe, Queen Victoria wore a Patek Philippe, and a Russian Czar, I think it was Nicholas II, he owned a Patek Philippe, I believe it was a pocket watch.
So Patek Philippe has a pretty darn impressive list of clients. If this was in today’s day and age and all this was all over social media, that would be so much more in your face. You have to go back to the history books, back to the internet to actually find some of that information. And I’m certain that I only mention such a tiny bit of celebrities or famous people I should say that wore Patek Philippe.
Patek Philippe Ellipse
But anyway, back to the Ellipse and I want to start this, not with my own words, but with the words of Patek Philippe from right off their website. They called the golden ellipse collection the “perfect harmony”. It’s an elliptical case between a circle and a rectangle.
First appearing in 1968, Patek Philippe’s golden ellipse was a bold departure from traditional watch shapes, but far from bowing down to fashion. This innovative watch has a sense of inner harmony that was very pleasing to the eye. Its design was inspired by the principles of the golden section, discovered by ancient Greek mathematicians. This divine proportion expressed as a ratio of one over 1.6 and one-eighth forms the basis of some of history’s greatest works of art and architecture. So, to translate that into my own words, it was neither here nor there. It just wasn’t a rectangle. It wasn’t a round watch. It wasn’t an oval watch.
And let me just show you, this is an older example. This is circa the 1980s. I received this watch in new, old stock condition, which is rare for this watch. And it’s also on its mesh bracelet. Original Ellipses came out with this blue dial. And by mesh, why do they call it a mesh bracelet where that’s obvious since the bracelet is like a mesh.
It can fold every which way. And I don’t know if it doesn’t really scratch when you do that either because I know you guys are going to give me heat over that folding buckle, which is integrated into the bracelet.
As you see here, it is a very thin case. The older Ellipses were small. The current Ellipses are much larger than this one, but again, this is probably the least popular men’s Patek out there today.
I can’t think of one that’s less popular than this because again, the watch is neither here nor there, it’s very conservative for someone that wants to own a Patek Philippe and for it not to be flashy, even though this is on a gold bracelet, this is not a flashy watch whatsoever if you ask me. It just looks like an old gold watch that someone is wearing, but those that know Patek Philippe will know that this is a Patek ellipse.
And guess what? These things are affordable!
I don’t recommend buying current models of ellipses because the retails are quite up there and they don’t really hold their value well at all, historically shown.
Patek Philippe 5070
Speaking of history, moving on to the Patek 5070 chronograph in rose gold, this was done in rose gold. It was also done in the yellow gold with a black dial and a platinum version with the blue dial and the blue strap as they normally did back then.
So, what’s so special about the Patek 5070 chronograph? Well, if you take the watch apart, there’s really nothing special to it. It’s not even their own movement, but it’s still one of the most collectible chronographs from Patek Philippe. Anybody that owns a Patek Philippe 5070 has done extremely well over time in terms of value and collectability.
This is a very coveted watch, whether it’s in rose gold, yellow gold, or platinum. Right before the financial crisis of ’08, people were going crazy over these Pateks. I remember selling the platinum for upwards of $150,000. The rose gold was selling upwards of $75,000-$85,000. The yellow gold wasn’t too far behind. If you look at all auction results, if you look at Patek Philippe’s history, you’ll notice that chronographs fetch top dollar at auction.
So why is this one so collectible? Again, considering this is not even its own movement. The movement of this watch is a la mania movement, which is also known as the caliber 2310. And oddly enough, what makes that movement famous is the Omega Speedmaster, which is why it’s better known under Omega’s caliber 321. And it was used in the very, very first omega Speed master from 1957.
Now Patek Philippe didn’t just take that movement and slap it and just watch- they put their decorations onto the movement. If you compare this to the original la mania movement, it looks nothing like it because Patek decorated all their movements and watches. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful movement and this is an iconic movement.
A lot of watch collectors will set this as a part of those 10 iconic chronograph movements, still la mania 2310. So, it’s not their own movement. Maybe that’s what made this watch much more collectible, because, after the fact, they discontinue using these movements, and guess what? The 5170, which was the younger brother of the 5070, wasn’t really doing that good. And it’s still not doing that good. You can find 5170s, especially in the secondary market discounted and discounted heavy. Nobody wants to collect them.
People still want these.
Patek Philippe 5980
Moving on to the coveted 5980 Nautilus. What’s going on with the Nautiluses today?
Stainless steel models are selling at way over $100,000.
Rose gold models are selling at way over $150,000. The market has gone completely ape on 5980 Nautilus. I’m not even going to talk about the 5711, the plane jane Nautilus, but the Nautilus chronograph has gone through the roof once again.
I’ve seen this happen before. Last time around, prior to the 2008 crisis, these things went all the way up to $65,000, which is more than twice its retail value.
But I brought something that’s a little bit different. Something that you guys are not going to see on any dealer shelves unless it’s an aftermarket job. This is the original 5980 rose gold with a diamond bracelet with baguettes and a baguette bezel. And this watch is absolutely stunning. Again, oftentimes when I come across pieces like this and people always tell me, “Hey Roman, why don’t you come down to earth and you know, stop showing us million dollar watches we can’t afford, show us something that’s actually somewhat reasonable”.
Well, guess what? Any 5980 at this point, whether it’s steel, rose, or diamond is becoming unaffordable because of the way the crazy market is today. But anytime I come across a watch, I always want to share it with my audience. I do love diamond watches and all.
This is a regular 5980 in rose gold with a baguette bezel, baguette diamonds going down the middle links of the bracelet, and the rest of the links covered in regular diamonds. What is the retail price of this watch? The answer is, I don’t know, it’s somewhere in that $600,000 range. I don’t know for sure because this watch is not even on a price list.
What does this watch trade at? It trades at about $650,000. That’s how crazy the market on something like this is and rightfully so because guess what? There’s only a handful of these out there. This isn’t something you can pick up the phone and call a local dealer or Patek for that matter. Say, Hey, I want to buy that baguette 5980 in platinum, they’ll say best of luck to you and good luck finding one.
There’s nothing for me to say regarding the 5980 chronographs that I already haven’t said. So, the only thing I’m really doing here is showing you the beauty of this watch, and the bracelet does have plastic on it, so you can’t really see that well. It’d be tough for me to unwrap it, but I did unwrap the head of the watch. So, you can see the gorgeous Diamond work and the overall aesthetics of this watch.
And if you ask me, would I wear this watch? Yes. Can I afford to own one of these? I don’t think I’m quite in the position to own this watch personally, so I won’t. Unfortunately, I can’t wear this one because it’s brand new, but nevertheless, stunning, home run, Patek Philippe. This is probably the most stunning diamond Patek Philippe watch I’ve ever laid eyes on, hands down. Can’t think of any other one that I would pick over this guy that has baguette diamonds or just any other diamonds from Patek Philippe.
This is the first time that I actually have this particular piece in stock and I know that most of you guys are going to say, well, that’s not something I’m ever going to be able to afford, but as a watch connoisseur, which I hope most of you guys are, it’s nice for me to have the ability to show you certain things that some of you may not know even existed or some that you may never get your hands on because you know what? I’m like a kid in the candy store, just the same, just because I’m in this business. Every time I get a piece such as this, which most likely I won’t have another in stock for a long time or ever, I also get just as excited and I get excited, not as a watch dealer, but as a watch connoisseur and watch lover myself.
So, I’ve sort of gone from the least desirable to a very collectible to a Patek that’s sort of out of this world. And I think, you know, I can spend hours talking about Patek Philippe and the various pieces that they’ve made. But oddly enough, I took a very different bunch of watches to bring you some thoughts on Patek Philippe as to why it is the king of all watchmaking and sort of giving you some insight on some of the watches that are out there today, both very affordable and accessible, some not so affordable, not so accessible. And of course, one that’s next to impossible to find.
More on Patek Phillipe:
2022 Patek Philippe Releases: The Complete New Lineup
Patek Philippe Aquanaut Price Guide: How Much Does an Aquanaut Cost?
EXPOSED! The REAL Prices of Patek Philippe & Audemars Piguet (based on actual sales)
Patek Philippe Introduces New Gem Set 5271P Complications
Ryan Gosling’s Drive Watch: a Vintage Patek Philippe
