A world-renowned auction house that sells classic watches has lost track of time when it comes to paying its customers, according to a new lawsuit.

Watch collector Andrew Woods filed a breach-of-contract suit in Manhattan federal court against New York-based timepiece auctioneer Antiquorum for failing to make payment on a rare Swiss-made Patek Philippe watch it sold on his behalf for $300,000 last December.

The watch was featured on the cover of Antiquorum’s Dec. 9 auction catalog.

Woods should have been paid 40 days after the auction sale, the civil suit filed last month claims.

Court papers show months of back-and-forth e-mail exchanges between Woods, a Florida resident, and company officials about the payment delays.

On March 6, company lawyer Michael Levine told Woods that “internal issues with a contractual investor have made it impossible to tender those funds at this time.”

Antiquorum hasn’t paid Woods even though it has held auctions in February and March, the suit says. Another one is scheduled in New York on June 22.

Levine told The Post, “We fully expect this to be resolved shortly,” but declined to discuss whether the company is in fiscal distress.

There’s also Russian intrigue surrounding the auction house, which was established in 1974 in Geneva. It was reported that Antiquorum and business partner Monaco Legend Group are selling a $1 million Patek Phillippe owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a July 19-21 auction in Monaco.

Photos in the media and on watch-collector Web sites show paperwork listing “Mr. Vladmir Vladimirovich Putin” as the owner — although the strongman told Russian media it wasn’t his watch and claimed someone used his name to inflate the value, according to Pravda.