Patek Philippe watches are hotly coveted and their incredible demand makes them ripe for counterfeits. While we recommend bringing your watch to a professional to examine its authenticity, here are some precautionary steps you can take on your own to flag potential fake Patek Philippe watches.

1. Inspect your watch’s quality thoroughly.

Patek Philippe is a renowned and, considered by some, the world’s premier watchmaker; the 175-year old brand has been consistently setting and then raising the bar for industry standards. Therefore, they take incredible pride in the absolute perfection of their watches, which makes a fake’s otherwise minor inconsistencies glaringly obvious by contrast. Misspellings, sloppy engravings, stamped lettering, or flimsy hardware are immediate indicators the watch is a fake.

2. Cross-reference the price.

Patek Philippe watches sit at the highest end of the luxury watch spectrum and are priced accordingly. Even a comparatively less expensive model will set you back thousands of dollars. With that high ticket in mind, research the Patek Philippe watch model you’re eyeing across multiple websites and shops to establish a general cost range. If you’re quoted a price significantly lower than the marketplace range, the watch is likely a fake. There is a big market for Patek Philippe watches and a seller would not need to significantly lower the price of an authentic Patek Philippe watch to entice shoppers.

3. Research the seller’s location and credibility. 

Try to find an exact address for your seller. The majority of the world’s counterfeit watches come from China– which does not mean all watches imported from China are fake. But if your seller is based abroad, you’ll want to investigate their legitimacy even more carefully. Evaluate the website to ensure its information complete and the URL is not a close misspelling of Patek Phillipe; it is common for phony sites to try and capture traffic misdirected from incorrectly spelled search terms. Read reviews from past shoppers and scrutinize the language very carefully. If the written reviews are very short (perhaps not complete sentences or a few words) or read like they may be penned by the seller themselves, or if there are no reviews at all, it’s best to just walk away.

4. Look up the watch’s serial number via Patek Philippe.

Every authentic Patek Philippe watch is stamped and logged with a serial number. For a modest fee, Patek Philippe can delve into its archives to compare the watch in question’s serial number with its records to confirm the stamp corresponds to the appropriate watch model. However, proceed with some caution even here: forgers can repeat a serial number of the same model on a fake Patek Philippe watch.

5. Get an expert opinion.

To know for certain if your watch and all its components are genuine Patek Philippe, you must bring it to an appraiser who specializes in Patek Philippe watches. The appraiser will extensively examine the watch to ensure its authenticity and value.

If you have further questions regarding TrueFacet’s authentication process, contact our concierge representative here.

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Patek Philippe‘s history dates back over 175 years and is filled with innovation and creativity, so it’s no surprise that Patek Philippe watches frequently break records at auction. Here are seven of the most incredible and incredibly expensive Patek Philippe watches.

7. Cushion-Shaped Single Button Chronograph

During the Great Depression, while the greater watch industry suffered and demand for lower-end watches evaporated, the elite watchmakers of Patek Philippe received an influx of orders for custom and incredibly complicated timepieces. Therefore, remarkably enough, during an economic downturn, Patek Philippe produced some of their rarest and most elegant watches. This particular watch, the Cushion-Shaped Single Button Chronograph, was produced in 1928 and sold in 1931. When it was put on the Christie’s auction block in 2011, this “extremely fine, important and possibly unique” watch fetched an impressive $3.6 million USD.

6. Ref. 2499 “Eric Clapton”

There are many contributing factors that make this chronograph so coveted—and worthy of its $3.64 million USD price tag. First off, this is the only Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 made of platinum. It also features a perpetual calendar and moon phases. The fame of the watch’s third owner, English musician, rock legend, and watch collector Eric Clapton, drummed up additional celebrity and attention for the timepiece. Clapton sent waves through the watch-collecting community by putting Ref. 2499 up for auction—making it the first time the watch was publicly available.

5. Ref. 5004T Titanium

This one-of-a-kind watch was designed by Patek Philippe exclusively for the Only Watch auction in Monaco in 2013. The Only Watch auction is a charity event to benefit the Monegasque Association Against Muscular Dystrophy which funds research for the degenerative neuromuscular disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This specific model is called the 5004T as a nod to the very few Patek Philippe watches made of titanium. The unique timepiece garnered $3.99 million at auction.

4. Ref. 2458 Observatory Chronometer

This watch was made in honor of J.B. Champion, a Texan criminal defense attorney and devoted Patek Philippe watch collector who passed away in 1975. The watch’s movement was developed for the 1948 Geneva Observatory watch-making competition “Concours de Chromoetrie.” The rigorous standards and size specifications made the competition’s contending watches commercially unviable for watchmakers. Of the 30 movements Patek Philippe designed for this competition, only two were ever put in a watch case and one of them went into this watch for J.B. Champion. Champion selected the case, dial and strap and only his was made in platinum. When the watch was put up for auction (coincidentally the same auction that included the aforementioned Ref. 2499 Eric Clapton watch), it sold for $3.99 million.

3. Caliber 89 Grand Complication Pocket Watch

To commemorate its 150th anniversary in 1989, Patek Philippe created what they dubbed, “the most complicated watch in the world.” This pocket watch boasts 33 complications including a thermometer, star chart, equation of time, and time of sunrise and sunset. The final design took nine years to produce and included 1,728 total parts and weighed in at 1.1 kilograms (2.42 pounds). Only four were made: one in white gold, yellow gold, rose gold and platinum. In 2009, one of the Patek Philippe Caliber 89 sold at Antiquorum’s auction for $5 million USD, which at the time was the second-highest price ever paid for a watch at auction.

2. Ref. 1527 Perpetual Calendar

The history of this particular watch proved a hard investigation for the even the world’s most obsessive watch enthusiasts. It was ultimately traced back to the 1940s and is one of two Ref. 1527. watches. The first Ref. 1527 was originally commissioned by former chairman of Patek Philippe SA, Charles Stern, and remains in the Patek Philippe museum in Switzerland. This particular second Ref. 1527 however features a chronograph mechanism that is not included in its sibling watch. To add to its unique value, this watch was worn by Charles’s son and head of Patek Philippe’s U.S. distribution, Henri Stern, throughout his life. The watch is the most complicated Ref. 1527 ever manufactured and is a major inspiration for Patek Philippe’s designs. The watch was auctioned at Christie’s in 2010 for $5.7 million USD.

1. The Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication

This watch was a special commission by banker Henry Graves in 1925 and took seven years to manufacture. What makes this watch such a marvel is the mind-boggling amount of ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into designing and then hand building the 24 complications (which also had to be manually calculated as this obviously long predated computers). Its complications include Westminster chimes, a perpetual calendar, and a celestial chart of New York’s evening sky. It remained the most complicated watch for over 50 years until Patek Philippe bested itself with the Caliber 89 Grand Complication (number three on our list here) in 1989. When the Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication first went to auction in 1999 it sold for $11 million USD. However, when this rare piece appeared on the Sotheby’s auction in 2014, it went for a stunning $24 million USD.

Patek Philippe is recognized as the world’s leading watch maker. This prestigious brand is credited with building some of the most complicated and valuable timepieces. We look back at the 178-year history of this legendary and ground-breaking watch brand to learn more about how it earned its illustrious reputation.

The Early Life of Antoni Patek
Antoni Norbert Patek was born in 1812 in a small village in Poland, amidst great international and political changes. In the wake of Napoleon’s great defeat by Russia in 1813, the Congress of Vienna redrew Poland’s borders and Poland was placed under the control of Russia’s controversial Tsar Nicholas I. When he turned 16, Patek enlisted in the First Mounted Rifles of the Polish cavalry and served as a freedom fighter against Russia. Patek ultimately fled Poland and the Tsar’s brutal policies in the mid-1830s.

Patek sought political asylum in Paris and then moved to the epicenter of watchmaking: Geneva, Switzerland. Patek immersed himself in the watchmaking industry, first buying high-quality movements to mount in his own watch cases and then opening his own company with his business partner, Francois Czapek. From their Geneva headquarters, Patek, Czapek & Co. produced an estimated 1,120 timepieces.

Meeting Jean Adrien Philippe
In 1844, Patek traveled to Paris for an exhibition and was introduced to Jean Adrien Philippe. Philippe was a talented and widely respected watchmaker, best-known for designing an impressively thin pocket watch. Philippe was also credited for revolutionizing watch design when he introduced his timepiece that could be wound with a crown, negating the need for the bothersome keys previously used to wind a watch.

In 1845, with Patek’s contract with Czapek set to expire, Philippe joined Patek’s new watch company, Patek & Co., as a partner and technical director. The company would later be renamed Patek Philippe & Co. in 1851.

The Rise of Patek Philippe & Co.
The newly-founded watch brand quickly rose to prominence. Philippe penned a successful book on his keyless pocket watch, cementing his industry renown as a watch expert. Meanwhile, Patek traveled extensively and internationally to market their watches. And Patek Philippe watches continued to innovate and quickly racked up awards and accolades.

In 1861, Patek Philippe debuted its stem-winding watch, shortly followed by its durable mainspring that proved a significant step in the development of the self-winding watch. In 1855, Patek Philippe’s pocket watch was awarded a gold medal at the first Universal Exposition. Patek Philippe also developed a watch to simultaneously display several time zones in 1870; this design would ultimately be reworked to become the universal time watch. A major business coup for the brand was becoming the principal supplier of pocket watches for New York’s Tiffany & Co. in 1876.

Antoine de Patek died on March 1, 1877 and named his son-in-law, Joseph Antonine Bénassy-Philippe, his successor. Jean Adrien Philippe retired in 1890, turning his role over to his youngest son Joseph Emile Philippe. Philippe died on January 5, 1894.

The Great Depression’s Effect
Joseph Antonine and Jospeh Emile continued to manage Patek Philippe as a family business, even as they transformed it into a stock corporation, named Ancienne Manufacture d’Horlogerie Patek Philippe & Cie. S.A., and installed seven shareholders onto its first board.

In 1932, the world’s economy was crippled by the United States’ Great Depression. The struggling Patek Phillipe & Co. turned to the owners of their dial maker business partner, Fabrique de Cadrans Sterns Frères, Charles and Jean Stern. Prompted by both their business savvy and a sentimental desire to perpetuate the Swiss watchmaking traditions, the Stern brothers purchased a majority interest in the waning Patek Philippe & Co. business. And, shortly after poaching Jean Pfister, a renowned watch maker, from Tavannes Watch Co., in 1933, Patek Philippe’s new management announced Patek Philippe would now begin making its own movements instead of buying them from LeCoultre.

With the Stern brothers at the helm, Patek Philippe’s business quickly picked back up. Patek Philippe introduced its flagship model, the Calatrava, in 1932; the minimalist design was inspired by the Bauhaus movement that brought form and function together. Patek Philippe also received a historic commission from American industrialist Henry Graves, Jr. in 1933. The now-famous masterpiece was the most complicated Patek Philippe pocket watch and, at the time, was valued at a stunning $60,000 USD (or over $1.1 million USD today).

The Quartz Crisis
In 1977, Philippe Stern, Charles Stern’s grandson, assumed control of the company. However, this was during the infamous Quartz Crisis that crippled the watch industry. The introduction of inexpensive quartz watches (and their subsequent takeover of mechanical watches’ market share) devastated the traditional watch industry that saw its sales plummet. Philippe Stern delicately straddled the world of traditional watch making with the new, incoming technology by incorporating quartz into select models. This savvy move kept Patek Philippe afloat. By 1984, when vintage watch collecting became a popular new hobby, interest in Patek Philippe was revitalized. And Patek Philippe’s hype was at fever pitch in 1989 when the brand celebrated its 150th anniversary.

Patek Philippe Today
Patek Philippe still reigns supreme in the world of watchmaking– with some fans going so far as to rank Patek Philippe as the best watchmaker in history. The company generates over $1.3 billion in annual revenue. Meanwhile the Stern family, including Philippe and his son Thierry, have a net worth of around $3 billion USD.

It is estimated Patek Philippe has produced only 1 million watches in its 178-year history. They are hotly sought after and prized by collectors. The rarest of the rare Patek Philippe watches regularly pull down record-breaking amounts at auction including the Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication pocket watch that sold for $24 million USD in 2014.

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The close of another week brings another round of amazing watch photography on Instagram. We chose our four favorites from the week to share. For jewelry and watch photos from TrueFacet, follow us at @TrueFacet.