How a 28-Year-Old Collector Built One of the Rarest Vintage Patek Philippe Collections

Although she didn’t know it at the time, the piece – a gift for her mother’s 50th birthday – would open a portal to a watchmaking universe she now inhabits as both a devoted enthusiast and a seasoned professional. Over the past two years, Li has worked as a contractor for Phillips’ watch department in New York, where she recently spent 30 minutes inspecting the Patek Philippe Ref 1518 wristwatch that sold at the house’s Geneva sale in November for $17.6m. “I would have paid to do it,” she tells Elite Travele