After quarantine restrictions put Collectability videos on hold, we wanted to start back with something fun. We also wanted to get some of our COVID cabin-fever frustration out. As curators and dealers in Patek Philippe watches, we don’t usually educate watch collectors on how to destroy their vintage timepiece, but it’s fun to do something … Continued
Ten years ago, it was quite easy to find a modern steel ref. 5711/1A for under 15,000 USD. If you were lucky, you could have picked one up for even less. Back then it seemed like business as usual for the Nautilus, a staple in the Patek line since 1976. Then something strange happened. It … Continued
I have been buying and selling Patek Philippe watches non-stop for over 20 years, but I have learned more about the realities of the market in the last five months than I ever imagined possible. I don’t have the global auction machine supplying my inventory, or a factory pumping out new inventory on the supply side. I … Continued
In this video, Collectability founder John Reardon looks at seven timepieces that will be a welcome addition to any Patek Philippe collection, all under $20,000. Where antique and modern Patek Philippe timepieces can run hundreds of thousands of dollars, you don’t have to spend a king’s ransom to own a beautiful Patek Philippe that’s part … Continued
During the late 1950s, Patek Philippe developed and marketed its first anti-magnetic wristwatch references. These watches were made in response to increased demand for high quality Swiss watches that could be used by professionals who had constant exposure to high degrees of magnetism such as electrical engineers, scientists and doctors. In such professions, a normal, … Continued
At Collectability, we are often asked which books one should read to learn more about Patek Philippe. Thankfully, the list continues to grow due to new scholarship and writers who are pushing the benchmark higher and higher. Here we’ve tried to list all the books on the manufacture and its watches written to date so … Continued
From 1971 until 1995, all watches made in Switzerland with gold applied markers or gold dial plates were required to have the ‘APRIOR’ logo (often called ‘sigma,’ after the Greek letter) marked on the dial. APRIOR stands for Association pour la Promotion Industrielle de l’Or. With Patek Philippe watches from this period, the APRIOR mark … Continued
In this ongoing series, you will learn the ‘secrets’ of the world of Patek Philippe. We will explore questions ranging from the logic behind reference numbers, the meaning of import codes, the insanely cryptic system of dial codes, and marks on your Patek timepieces that you never knew were there. For the first installment, I … Continued
Neither an Ellipse, nor a Nautilus, the Nautilus-Ellipse hybrid ref. 3770 is both gently mocked and celebrated. It is the kind of watch that raises eyebrows among collectors as well as those uninitiated in the world of watches. So why does the Nautellipse exist? When I first saw this reference in 1997, I was cataloging … Continued
