Monaco Legends, the company that organizes Antiquorum auction explained how a Patek Pilippe watch, which the media dubbed as "Putin's watch" appeared at its auction.
Representatives for the company said that the watch indeed belongs to a person named Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The watch was bought as a gift, they added. There is no other additional information about the buyer available from the warranty sheet.
Representatives for the auction house also explained that the guarantee certificate for the Patek Philippe watch may contain another person's name in exceptional cases. According to Monaco Legends, the watch "was purchased by a very important person as a gift to a man named Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin."
Taking into account the fact that only official dealers of the company can issue a guarantee certificate, this information can be true. Quite often, people buy watches, especially expensive ones, as a gift. However, an official distributor must have a necessary confirmation proving that this specific watch will be gifted to a specific person.
According to representatives of Monaco Legends, "if either Patek Philippe or a company distributor put the name of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in the guarantee certificate as the owner of the watch, they had all necessary reasons and documents to do so."
In early June 2017, Bloomberg and Le Point paid attention to a Patek Philippe 52008P watch with a platinum case, perpetual calendar and gold dial. The documentation to the watch indicated the name of Vladimir Vladimirovic Putin. According to Monaco Legends, the model costs from 900,000 to 1.5 million euros.
Representatives for the Kremlin administration said that the information about "Putin's watch" on an auction was fake.
Of course, such a situation could occur: a wealthy person could order the watch as a gift to Putin, but the president could not accept it for some reason. As a result, the watch appeared on an auction as the "Putin's watch" for profit. It could also be possible that the original buyer of the watch simply wanted to sell it at a higher price.