The watch once owned by the last emperor of the Chinese Qing Dynasty was sold for a record 49 million Hong Kong dollars (6.2 million USD) in an auction.
According to London-based auctioneer Phillips, an Asian collector based in Hong Kong (China) and auctioned by phone to buy a rare Patek Philippe Reference 96 Quantieme Lune watch that once belonged to the last emperor ofpopular China.
The auctioneer said that this watch is one of the very few Patek Philippe Reference 96 Quantieme Lune watches known and was given to his Russian interpreter by Pu Yi.
Thomas Perazzi, head of the watch department at Phillips Asia, told Reuters that the auction was the highest result for any watch ever sold by an emperor.
Other watches owned by the emperors and auctioned include the Patek Philippe watch owned by the late Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie, which was sold for $2.9 million in 2017.
A Rolex watch belonging to King Bao Dai of Vietnam was auctioned for 5 million USD in 2017.
Born in 1906, Pu Yi was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty in China, crowned at the age of 2 and forced to be deposed in 1912.
Pu Yi's watch, despite its historical significance, is not the most expensive watch ever auctioned. A Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime was sold for $31 million in 2019. This is considered the most complex watch that the luxury watch manufacturer has ever created, with 20 complex functions.
