The Attic Top 5 - This Week's Vintage Watch Insights
| The Attic Top 5 | Attic Capital |
|---|---|
| 1. News of the Week | Here's yet another luxury watch price index. WatchCharts tracks 60 watches with daily updated index values. Over the last 12 months, the index has steadily decreased, but still not even close to March 2020 levels. By brand, AP leads the decline with an -11.6% drop, Patek -10.1%, and Rolex -6.2%. |
| 2. Favorite Video of the Week | We have a good idea why Rolex watches are so expensive. Here's a Rolex marketing video on the brand putting each watch through extreme testing. But I want to actually see a watch go through extreme testing, not just hear dramatic Rolex music. Here ya go - from the 'Crazy Hydraulic Press' YouTube channel, testing original Vs. fake shockproof watches. Enjoy! |
| 3. Deal of the Week | I love vintage pocket watches; it's no secret. Here's a Bulova beauty, 42 mm, gold plated, 17 jewels with Arabic numerals for $780 on eBay. |
| 4. Random Thought of the Week | What's the biggest watch brand by annual revenue? You might have guessed it, but it's Rolex, with $8.8 billion in sales. Second place? Cartier, with $2.6 billion. Followed by Omega ($2.4 billion) and Audemars Piguet. ($1.7 billion) |
| 5. Featured Company | Here are two brothers from Germany trading vintage watches and sharing all they have learned. Goldammer Vintage Watches features one watch a week while they search for the next great find. They also have a great Vintage Watch Buying Guide with a few simple rules. Very helpful. "Vintage Watches with a soul." I like it. |
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Top 10 Most Valuable Watches of All Time
| Rank | Brand | Model | Date Sold | Facts | Buyer & Seller | Image | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graff Diamonds | Hallucination | 2014 | 2014 | Total weight of the diamonds on this watch weigh 110 carats. A brainchild of Laurence Graff, he wanted to show the company's innovation, authority, excellence, and superiority in the diamond industry. | After thousands of hours assembling the watch and unveiling it at Baselworld in 2014, by all accounts, the watch is still owned by the Graff Diamond company. |  | $55 million |
| 2 | Graff Diamonds | The Fascination | 2015 | 2015 | 152.96 carats of white diamonds, with a single 38 carat Flawless diamond in the center that can be worn as a ring. | The one of a kind watch was unveiled at BaselWorld in 2015, but would not comment if there was a buyer immediately. As far as we know, the watch is still owned by the Graff company. |  | $40 million |
| 3 | Breguet | No. 160 | 1827 | 2013 | Legend has it, the watch was commissioned in 1783 by an admirer of the French Queen, Marie Antoinette. After 19 years, the watch was complete. | Completed 9 years after Marie Antoinette was executed, she was never able to see the watch. Sold to Sir Spencer Brunton in 1887, then to Sir David Lionel Salomons in 1920. Stolen from the L.A. Mayer Institute in 1983 by master thief Na'aman Diller. Recovered in 2007 and returned to Jerusalem. Valued at $23 million in 2013. |  | $30 million |
| 4 | Chopard | 201 Carat Watch | 2019 | N/A | 874 high-grade diamonds of all colors and sizes. Press the spring-loaded mechanism and the heart-shaped stones flip open like a flower in the sun. | Chopard, the Swiss company established in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard, there's no other known buyer of the watch to date. |  | $25 million |
| 5 | Patek Philippe | Supercomplication | 1933 | 2014 | Only one was ever made, and considered to be the most complicated mechanical watches of all time. 24 functions with a celestial chart of the stars. Henry Graves asked Patek to build a watch to top his rival watch collector James Ward Packard, the car maker. Engraved on the back was the Graves family motto, "Esse Quam Videri," 'To be rather than to seem.' | Commissioned by businessman Henry Graves Jr. in 1933, to build the world's most complicated watch, no matter the cost. Graves paid $15,000. Purchased by Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani in 1999. |  | $24 million |
| 6 | Jacob & Co. | Billionaire Watch | 2015 | 2017 | 260 carats of emerald-cut diamonds and a Jacob & Co. nearly see-through "skeletonized" tourbillon movement. | The watch was purchased by boxer Floyd Mayweather sometime after it was unveiled at Baselworld in 2015. |  | $18 million |
| 7 | Rolex | Paul Newman's Daytona | 1968 | 2017 | The Newman Daytona is a unique black and creme art deco style dial. Only 2,000 to 3,000 were ever produced like it. Engraved on the back of the watch is "Drive Carefully Me," a note from Newman's wife. | A gift from Newman's wife, actress Joanne Woodward, then given to James Cox, a former boyfriend of Nell Newman, Paul's daughter. There's speculation that Rolex purchased the watch at auction, or a private collector sold the watch back to Rolex after the bidding. |  | $17.8 million |
| 8 | Patek Philippe | Ref. 1518 | 1941 | 2016 | Made in steel, its one of four watches of it's kind. It was the world's first perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch. | Sold to a private collector. |  | $11.1 million |
| 9 | Vacheron Constantin | 57260 | 2015 | 2015 | The watch features 57 complications. | The pocket watch is part of Vacheron's tailor-made watches, a series including James W. Packard's minute repeating watch from 1918, King Fuad I's pocket watch from1929, and King Farouk of Egypt's custom pocket watch from 1948. |  | $8 million |
| 10 | Hublot | Big Bang | 2012 | 2012 | The Big Bang by Hublot includes 1,282 diamonds, collected from various locations around the world. | The watch was purchased by Beyonce and given to her husband Jay-Z on his 43rd birthday. |  | $5 million |
Top 10 Most Expensive Watches of All Time
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