BEJING: A watch once owned by the last emperor of China’s Qing Dynasty, whose life formed the basis of the 1987 Oscar-winning movie “The Last Emperor,” was sold for 49 million Hong Kong dollars at auction.
According to AL Jazeera, an Asian collector residing in Hong Kong and bidding by phone bought the rare Patek Philippe Reference 96 Quantieme Lune timepiece, which boasts a crown-like moon phase and once belonged to China’s last emperor Aisin-Gioro Puyi, according to London-based auction house Phillips.
The watch is one of a minimal number of known Patek Philippe Reference 96 Quantieme Lune timepieces and was gifted by Puyi to his Russian interpreter when the Soviet Union imprisoned him, the auction house said. The storied timepiece easily beat a pre-sale estimate of 3 million dollars.
The hammer price, which excludes the buyer’s premium fee, was 40 million Hong Kong dollars. With the buyer’s premium fee, the total price was about 6.2 milliom dollars.
Head of watches at auction house Phillips Asia, Thomas Perazzi, said it was “the highest result” for any wristwatch that once belonged to the emperor.
Other watches owned by the emperors and sold at auction include a Patek Philippe timepiece that belonged to the last Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, which sold for 2.9m dollars in 2017. The Rolex watch belonged to the last emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, who fetched 5m dollars at an auction in 2017.
Born in 1906, Puyi was the last emperor of China’s Qing dynasty, who began his area at two years old and was forced to abdicate in 1912.
