FutureGrail has sold watches online since 2023. Its first live auction, on November 14 at the Artyzen Hotel in Singapore, is built around a watch that has never been auctioned at all: a 1954 Patek Philippe Reference 2526P, cased in platinum, with an enamel dial signed by Serpico y Laino, the Caracas retailer. FutureGrail believes the watch is unique, and has estimated it at $1 million to $2 million.
The estimate rests on the reference. The 2526, launched in 1953, was Patek Philippe’s first self-winding wristwatch. Catalogue research puts total production at about 580 pieces across every metal, and platinum accounts for roughly 20 of them.
Why this reference carries the money
Inside is the calibre 12-600 AT, the automatic movement Patek patented in 1953, from an era when most fine watches were still wound by hand each morning. Most 2526s were cased in yellow gold. Pink and white gold took small shares, and platinum the smallest, which is why a platinum example with its enamel dial intact draws a crowd. Enamel does not fade or fox the way metal dials do, so a cream dial from 1954 can look close to the day it was made. The second signature, below Patek Philippe’s own, marks the watch as one sold by Serpico y Laino, the firm’s Caracas retailer, whose name appears on some of the most sought-after mid-century Pateks in the market.
A catalogue with depth behind the star
The sale around it is serious. A 2004 F.P. Journe Octa Calendrier with a brass movement and a gold dial, cased in platinum, is estimated at $400,000 to $600,000. A 2012 Cartier that combines a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar and a single-button chronograph in diamond-set white gold, one of five made, carries the same range. A second Serpico y Laino watch, a 1950 Ref. 1463R chronograph in rose gold, is estimated at $300,000 to $600,000, and a 1941 Ref. 1502J with a two-tone sector dial, one of two known, at $150,000 to $300,000.
“There is a growing interest in such rare watches, between the hubs of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia,” said Ali Nael, FutureGrail’s chief executive. The preview circuit follows that map: Hong Kong last week, Dubai on October 28 and 29, Geneva from November 5 to 8, and Singapore from November 12 until the sale. The house’s head of curation, Arnaud Tellier, spent three decades as a watchmaker and once directed the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, which is FutureGrail’s answer to the question every young auction house gets asked.
The Dubai preview opens Wednesday at ICD Brookfield in DIFC. Collectors who want to argue with the estimate can start by looking at the watch.
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