22 January 2026

The Five Most Expensive Watches Sold at Auction in 2025

BY EMILE KUKLYTE

Why Auction Results Matter

In high watchmaking, auctions are not simply places where rare watches change hands. They are where the market defines itself. Each result is a data point that shows how collectors, dealers, and institutions are weighting rarity, technical importance, originality, and cultural relevance at that exact moment in time.

Private sales can be negotiated quietly. Auction results cannot. Every hammer price is public, recorded, and instantly absorbed into the global watch economy. Over time, these results shape how references are valued, how brands are perceived, and how future watches are designed. For this reason, auctions remain one of the clearest lenses through which to understand where the upper end of the market is heading.

In 2025, that lens offered a particularly revealing view. While the industry continues to innovate through independent watchmaking, advanced materials, and increasingly sophisticated modern calibres, the watches that achieved the highest prices were those that combined mechanical significance, rarity of execution, and a strong narrative thread. Not simply old, and not simply new, but important.

1. Patek Philippe Reference 1518 in Stainless Steel

Approx. $17.6 million

The stainless steel Patek Philippe Reference 1518 that sold in Geneva became the defining auction result of the year. To understand why, it helps to consider what the 1518 represents.

Introduced in 1941, the 1518 was the first wristwatch ever produced in series to combine a perpetual calendar with a chronograph. That pairing remains, more than eighty years later, one of the most complex and revered formats in traditional watchmaking. Nearly every modern perpetual calendar chronograph traces its conceptual lineage back to this reference.

Most 1518s were produced in yellow or pink gold. Stainless steel examples were never part of Patek Philippe’s intended offering and exist only as special commissions. Today, only four are known. This makes the steel 1518 not simply rare, but structurally anomalous within Patek’s history.

The example sold in 2025 is believed to be the earliest of the four. It is a watch that sits at the origin of a category and does so in a case material that was never meant to exist. That combination of technical primacy and material deviation is why it achieved a price far beyond even other important 1518s.

This was not a nostalgic result. It was a recognition of mechanical first principles.

2. F.P. Journe FFC Prototype

Approx. $10.755 million

If the steel 1518 represented the historical foundation of complicated watchmaking, the F.P. Journe FFC represented its contemporary frontier.

The FFC, created for Francis Ford Coppola, is not a production model. It is a unique prototype featuring a bespoke mechanical architecture and an unconventional time display built around a sculptural central hand. It exists outside the typical reference system that governs most modern watches.

This is important. In an industry where repetition and limited editions dominate, the FFC represents something rarer: a watch designed without commercial constraint. François Paul Journe has long been respected for building movements with classical architecture and modern execution, but this piece takes that philosophy further, treating the movement as both a functional engine and a kinetic object.

Its result in 2025 showed that the market is willing to place eight-figure valuations on modern watches when they offer true originality, mechanical depth, and singularity. That is a powerful signal for independent horology.

3. Rolex Reference 6062

Approx. $6.2 million

The Rolex Reference 6062 is one of the most misunderstood watches in the brand’s history. While modern Rolex is synonymous with sports models, the 6062 belongs to a period when Rolex was actively producing complicated calendar watches alongside its professional tool watches.

The 6062 combines a triple calendar with a moonphase in a waterproof Oyster case. Produced in the early 1950s in very small numbers, it represents Rolex at its most technically ambitious.

The example that sold in 2025 did not achieve its price because of branding alone. It did so because it occupies a unique place in Rolex’s development, showing what the company was capable of before it narrowed its focus to sports watches. In a market that increasingly values full historical narratives, watches like the 6062 have become essential chapters.

4. Patek Philippe Reference 1518 in Pink Gold with Salmon Dial

Approx. $4.46 million

Not all value at auction is driven by technical architecture alone. Sometimes, configuration matters just as much.

The pink gold 1518 with salmon dial, often referred to as “pink on pink,” is mechanically identical to other 1518s. What sets it apart is visual balance. The warmth of the dial against the case creates a different emotional response to the watch.

In recent years, collectors have become increasingly attentive to dial colour, typography, and overall harmony. The strong performance of this example reflects that shift. Even among historically important references, individuality now commands a premium.

5. Patek Philippe Reference 2499 Second Series

Approx. $4.32 million

The Reference 2499 was the successor to the 1518, produced from the 1950s through the 1980s. It retained the perpetual calendar chronograph layout but increased case size and adjusted proportions, making it more wearable by modern standards.

The Second Series, with its Arabic numerals and clean dial, is often considered the most balanced of the four iterations. It bridges vintage construction with a more contemporary wrist presence.

Its strong result in 2025 reflects continued demand for complicated watches that offer both mechanical depth and everyday usability.

What 2025’s Auction Results Actually Tell Us

The highest prices of 2025 were not about celebrating age or dismissing modern watchmaking. They were about coherence.

The watches that performed best shared three traits:

Technical significance
Clear identity
Narrative depth

Whether from the 1940s or the 2000s, they were watches that made sense within the evolution of watchmaking. They were not designed to chase trends. They were built around ideas.

That, ultimately, is what the market continues to reward.

Auction results and imagery referenced here are drawn from Phillips, Sotheby’s and Monaco Legend Auctions.