A Patek Philippe watch, owned by Aisin-Gioro Puyi – the last emperor of China – sold for $6.2 million at Phillips Hong Kong, “smashing its pre-sale high estimate of $3 million,” according to IDEX Online.
Sold to an unidentified phone bidder from Hong Kong, the “platinum Refc96 Quantieme Lune triple date watch was made in 1937 with moon phases, roulette-dial, enamel Arabic numerals and pink gold feuille hands.” The high price tag has made it the most valuable lot ever sold by Phillips Watches in Asia.
Aisin-Gioro Puyi was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and his life and times are dramatized in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. The watch even survived the five years Puyi spent “in later life in a Soviet prison camp in Siberia,” according to the report.
