Sotheby’s is auctioning vintage and modern timepieces of world-renowned brands on December 11 at Sotheby’s New York. A collection of over 160 watches by Patek Phillipe, Rolex, Cartier, Audemars Piguet and Jaeger-Lecoultre will go under the hammer.
Introduced in 1941, ref 1518 by Patek Phillipe is a historical watch as it’s the first-ever perpetual chronograph watch made by the brand and was followed by the perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatches. With only 20 pieces produced each year, the ref 1518 available at the auction is a rare watch with silvered dial, hard enamel Arabic hour markers and hence highly sought-after in the horology circle. Also part of the Swiss brand’s vintage collection is ref 130, a stainless steel chronograph wristwatch and ref 3448, another important piece as it’s first in the series of automatic perpetual calendar watches and ranges between one fifty and two fifty thousand US dollars. Other range includes complicated modern, important minute repeating ones and the Nautilus.
Moving on, a very important factor in the watch business is its provenance. It concerns with the past ownership of the watch and sometimes becomes even more important than its price and its condition. Mellerio pink gold rectangular wristwatch once owned by Carrie Fisher (well known as Princess Leia from Star Wars); a stainless steel seconds centre wristwatch ranging between an estimated seventy to ninety thousand US dollars from Classic guitarist Angel Romero’s collection; a Rolex ref 1675 GMT-master made popular in films like ghostbusters, the big chill, the warriors by Michael Ginsburg are all part of the auction.
From the vintage Rolex collection is ref 6036 stainless steel triple calendar chronograph, with an estimated price of one fifty to two fifty thousand US dollars. Associated with Jean-Claude Killy, legendary french skier with gold medals at Olympics, a board member and brand ambassador for Rolex, this oeuvre has never appeared at an auction before. Lastly, the ref 6420 ‘Paul Newman’ Daytona which was only produced for a limited time between 1965 and 1969, its a water-resistant cosmograph ranging between two hundred to three hundred thousand US dollars.
