WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE NEW WATCH?

Does Bernard Arnault wear the most expensive watch in the world?? 30 million euros! This is roughly what the watch he is wearing is estimated to be in one of his son Frédéric Arnault's Instagram posts that we saw on the networks last week. Well it's a unique piece so you have certainly heard that it is "Inestimable" or just "not inestimable". Good and at LeCalibre.com, we are not specialists in estimating this kind of parts but we still thought that we were going to do a little calculation for you, which we are going to present to you today. So the watch he's wearing isn't that at all, it's a unique piece developed on a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5740 base, a white gold watch driven by an SQ 240 caliber, it's a perpetual calendar. So this classic 5740 has a list price of 117,300 euros. Well like many Nautilus references, it is completely impossible to find at retailers and at Patek Philipe, on the other hand on the gray market you can find it from time to time around 400,000 euros, as you can see here on a graph of our partner Chronext, who moreover has all the watches checked and authenticated before selling them. For a Patek that will be around €400,000, it's always cool to be able to find out about its authenticity. But back on topic. It is estimated that Bernard Arnault's watch is also in white gold, also driven by the perpetual calendar caliber, and that the only major difference is this dial, therefore this dial which takes on the color Tiffany blue, it is this somewhat signature turquoise of this New York jeweler. And we also find the Tiffany and Co signature at 6 o'clock in the sub-dial. In terms of color, we saw a lot of feedback on the Internet saying that this turquoise was not exactly the same as usual for Tiffany Blue. It made fun of the designer a bit by saying that he had been a bit heavy-handed with the painting. Personally, I think it's more a matter of light and image quality. For our calculation, we will use the classic 5711, the three hands with the blue dial. When it was still available in stores, it had a list price of around 30,000 euros, so it's around 35,000 dollars. Well, on the gray market, it's yet another story. As we can see here, it quickly reached €200,000. It's a steel watch, guys, we'll call you back. Well ok Chronext are based in Germany and their deliveries are secure so you won't have customs fees or additional costs if you order it from them But it's still completely incredible prices! So this same piece, the 5711 three hands but in a Tiffany version, it was released in December 2021 at a list price of $52,000 so that's about 1.5x more than the list price of the classic Nautilus List price of the 5711 blue: $35,000, 5711 Tiffany: $52,000. At the same time, the very first piece of this 5711 Tiffany was sold at auction. It became the ninth most expensive watch in the world, selling at auction with $5,350,000. That's still $6,503,000 with fees. It's still a steel watch, huh. What's cool, with this absolutely crazy sale, is that it will surely help a few struggling turtles and 2/3 capybaras in danger because 100% of the profits from this sale have been donated to the association The Nature Conservancy, which deals with the environment on several levels. Knowing, as we have just seen, that the catalog price of this part was $52,000, that is still 125 times more expensive. A small X 125 without problem. So, if we recap on the price level, when we go from a piece with a blue dial to a piece with a Tiffany dial, we do X 1.5. For the 5740, with its list price of €117,300. X 1.5 we arrive at €175,950. Come on, let's round up to 176,000, that leaves 50 bullets for the designer who changed the color of the dial. The 5711 Tiffany, which sold for 125 times its list price, was number 1 out of 170. It was a limited edition. If we apply the same coefficient to the 5740, we therefore get 176,000 euros, X 125, that's still 22 million euros. So we're already over the $17.8 million that Paul Newman's Daytona 6239 cost, which was sold in 2017. At the time, it was one of the most expensive wristwatches ever sold. But it's not over because we remind you that the 5740 is a unique piece and not a limited edition. For the price difference between a limited edition and a unique piece, we are at least X 10. To take a somewhat recent example, we can talk about the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms “No Rads” for “No Radiations”, which was therefore a limited edition of 500 pieces released in 2021 at a list price of around €13,000. Also in 2021, there was a unique piece released for the Only Watch event, which sold for 130,000 Swiss francs. That's about 125,000 euros. So, we are on a little times ten. And again, I'm not talking about coefficients on a unique piece from Audemars Piguet or Tudor. But hey, if we take X10 for the 5740, that's 22 million, times ten, 220 million. We will perhaps calm down since it is the price of two A320s, but we estimate that at the very least, we can start with a plus of 50% for the unique parts aspect, also for the story-telling aspect, we therefore know that it is a gift from Mr. Stern to Mr. Arnault. So, obviously, for collectors, that's the kind of detail that blows up the odds. And even with the very conservative + 50%, we arrive at 33 million euros. This is how we made our calculation to find the estimate of this unique piece 5740 by Bernard Arnault. 33 million euros means that we have already exceeded the price of the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300 unique piece which was sold to Only Watch in 2019. It is so far the most expensive watch ever sold in the story. So whatever its price, the appearance of this one-of-a-kind watch has unleashed passions on the networks, on Instagram, Tweeter, etc., in the watchmaking microcosm. Besides, we found a bunch of MEMEs on the more or less creative networks which expressed, therefore, this mockery towards this new piece which was not unanimous. In addition to the choice of color, there are quite a few who speak of the fact that the finishes and on the dial and on the rest seem a little coarse compared to what we are used to from Patek Philippe. It may be the quality of the photo, but it's true that it's weird to see it like that on the networks. It's not the first time that a multi-million dollar watch has been the laughingstock of the entire internet, but it's rarely Patek who pays the price. If we look at Jacob & Co, there is for example the Billionaires Watch, I believe that number three, the price, was still 18 million euros. It must be said that it is more than 700 diamonds on the wrist, between the bracelet, the case, etc. Indeed, it does not meet the tastes of many aficionados of classic watchmaking, let's say, a bit like Tiffany blue on such an incredible piece as the 5740. Patek has already been turned on a little with the 5711 Tiffany, as Theo told us about in the video of the big releases of 2021. In any case, there is also another thing that has made people cringe a little, and that is that there are some who have criticized the fact that there is the LVMH logo visible on the bottom of the case. Why has the LVMH logo been criticized? But with the 5740, it's yet another level of mockery. At the same time, of course, there are many aficionados of the brand who cry genius, who are very happy with the result and who have put this 5740 Tiffany in their watchmaking Grails, a priori rather inaccessible, I doubt that Bernard Arnault will put it in sale on Chronext this week, but hey, you never know. Afterwards, we are used to social networks being often based on mockery, whether for big brands or small brands. As soon as there are novelties, there is a part of the followers who are not happy. So we'll see over time if people understand what Patek wanted to do with this piece or if the piece definitely falls into the category of rare mistakes made by the house during its journey. Good and you then? Yes, you, you! What do you think of this 5740? If you like it, put a Like on the video. If you hate it, also put a Like, it will avoid shooting the algorithm, but at least give us your reasons in comments. It interests us to have the opinion of our community on such a divisive piece. So we are waiting for you in the comments. Come on, ciao, the calibrated ones.