A factory-sealed Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime was sold by Sotheby’s in New York on behalf of Sylvester Stallone on Wednesday. A bidding war drove the price up to $5.4 million, just above its pre-sale top estimate, and was won by an anonymous buyer from Asia.
Patek Philippe first unveiled its Grandmaster Chime in 2014 as a commemorative piece for the brand’s 175th anniversary, the watch entered the core collection in 2016 as the reference 6300 with a retail price of $2.6 million.
Core collection does not mean commonplace because each watch requires around 100,000 hours to produce.
It has a total of twenty complications including five chiming modes and a reversible case with two independent dials.
In 2019, Patek Philippe made its first and only Grandmaster Chime in steel for the Only Watch charity auction, and it set a new world record price of CHF 31 million.
Sotheby’s sold My Stallone’s white gold piece in its original single sealed casing in a grand presentation box engraved with the actor’s name and a Grandmaster Chime book bearing his name on the cover and inside cover.
The lot also included a Certificate of Origin confirming Mr Stallone as the original purchaser.
Paperwork will also say which Patek Philippe retailer sold the watch to the Hollywood star and questions are swirling in industry circles about whether the high profile flipping of such a precious watch will sour relations.
Customers who are caught reselling Patek Philippe watches for quick profit are unofficially blacklisted for future watch purchases.
Mr Stallone appears to allude to this issue in an interview with Ralph Deluca, an influential art advisor to the rich and famous.
Mr Deluca says that he and Mr Stallone spent time looking through his watches and deciding which pieces were right to be let go at this time in order to thin it out the collection.
Mr Stallone turns and touches the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime presentation box and replies: “I have always thought of this as something to just be admired. I wasn’t going to covet it and keep it forever. That’s just not my personality. I tend to enjoy things, and then I like to share them.”
Mr Stallone has owned the Grandmaster Chime for around two years, WatchPro has been told.
Mr Stallone then turns to the camera to tell an anecdote about an American comedian named Flip Wilson. A hidden message to people critical of him flipping such a rare watch?
In a separate Instagram reel, Mr Stallone describes how difficult it was to acquire the watch, saying he had to write many letters to the board before getting the green light to buy it.