The Auction Hammer – Patek Philippe Millennium ref.5032J

03/06/2011 | By Martin Green | 2 min read |

Catch the bug after a decade – a Patek Philippe Millennium (ref.5032J) will be auctioned at the upcoming Antiquorum auction in New York.

It is almost unbelievable but it has already been more than a decade ago since the world entered the new millennium. Despite this unique and joyful event, there was the dark shadow of the famous “Y2K” bug that promised black outs, meltdowns, total mayhem and, of course, the end of civilization as we knew it. Fortunately these doom-scenario’s did not keep watchmakers from creating limited editions to commemorated this special event. Very interesting of course, especially when the name of this watchmaker is Patek Philippe.

Patek Philippe actually issued more than one model to commemorate the new millennium. Reference 5100J with their superb 10 days movement, a double-sided pocket watch with 21 complications named Star Caliber 2000 and a time-only model, reference 5032J. Antiquorum offers one of the latter in their June 8^th New York auction. Patek only made 100 pieces of this watch, which was also a yellow gold exclusive. Interesting is mainly the Breguet number 2 on the dial (the rest of the indices are dart shaped) as a reference to the new millennium and the ruby cabochon on the crown. This Patek is powered by caliber 240, an ultra thin automatic movement that uses an micro-rotor.

The “Millennium” that Antiquorum auctions in June is still sealed and therefore in exquisite condition, with all papers and box included. In the last decade Antiquorum auctioned about 5 ref.5032J “Millennium” watches. The estimate for this current one is between 15.000,- to 20.000,- USD. The last “Millennium” that Antiquorum auctioned was in May 2007, and was sold for 23.600 CHF, or about 18.800 USD. It will be interesting to see what the result will be for this model in the upcoming auction, and how the value of this reference will further develop a decade after the Millennium.