Aurel Bacs presents four highlights from the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: XXIII

It's an absolute pleasure, just before we opened the exhibition at the Hotel President in Geneva for the Geneva Watch Auction, to show you four items, four watches, four timekeepers that have absolutely nothing in common, but actually they do. What do they have in common? First, none of them was made at a time when watchmakers could make good use of computers. No CAD, no CAM, no laser, whatever great technologies we have today. And I also believe they have in common that at every given moment when these were made, it was absolutely the very best one could possibly, and I say possibly acquire, they were never readily available, but one could possibly acquire given the funds and the understanding were available. We have four timekeepers going from the late 19th century, first quarter of the 20th, mid 20th, and late 20th, so spanning over 100 years of the finest watchmaking at any given moment in history. Why don't we go chronologically, and I start with this enormous super complication made by Louis Audemars. The connoisseurs will probably agree the master of grand complications, and this one here is the most complicated watch in the world when it was presented in 1878 at the Paris exhibition. As a matter of fact, Louis Audemars won a prize for this watch. The watch has unthinkable complications. First and foremost, to power all these functions, the watch is not one, not two, it is actually three mainsprings. One, the so-called going train, and it shows a perpetual calendar, a double chronograph. No, not a split second. Listen carefully. A double chronograph, that means two separate chronograph mechanisms superimposed, one on top of each other, two time zones, age and phase of the moon. It even has a temperature indication at the bottom of the dial, and I mentioned the retrograde perpetual calendar. The second train powers the repeating train. Not only does it repeat, but it has also a grand sonnery. And the third train, for what quite naughtily is called the devilish, it is a jumping fifth seconds that we see here beautifully performing. What does it feel like to hold the world's most complicated pocket watch in 1878 in one's hand? It's unimaginable what a showstopper it has been back then. This watch now comes for the first time ever to the auction market, and I really believe it should go into a fabulous private collection. Going to the mid-twenties, well, Cartier, Mr. Kueh, the mystery clocks, they have been second to none in a mechanical aspect, because think once more how fascinating it is to have an hour and a minute hand floating in space. But once again, Cartier's design, how to pair our deco elements with traditional Chinese motifs. The dial, if I may call this the dial, but the clock itself sits on the back of a chimera carved in agate, sitting on a rose quartz rock. All this on a fabulous mother of pearl block with beautiful mosaic, depending how you look at it, shines in so many different patterns. You've got pearls, you've got turquoise, you've got sapphires, the hour markers are in diamonds. This one here is one of the rare occasions where Cartier has indeed delivered a certificate confirming its authenticity. And we understand it was at one point at Cartier, in Cartier's collection. So it's quite a treat for this first ever on the auction market for now being available to the collecting community. If we move on to the 1950s, the world has changed. We're now in the so-called jet age. And if you do jet around the world, if you're a jet setter, what did Patrick Philippe have for you? Patrick Philippe had for you a world time wristwatch. Based on the new concept of Mr. Cartier, the world time mechanism where you have the cities on a ring outside with the diurnal and nocturnal hours going in the opposite direction. But the greatest of all visual elements of the watch, yes, are these faceted locks, but equally important, the handmade croissant enamel dial depicting the map of South America. We know very few of these references to 523. This one was made in the early 50s. And we know guilloche dials, we know North America, publicly in museums, in private collections, Eurasia, even plain blue dials. This is so far the only one that has ever been traded or offered or sold publicly at auction depicting the map of South America. No, not last year, not 10 years ago. No, in the late 80s. That's probably more than two generations of watch collecting ago. And since then, the watch has not been available at auction. Why are there so few? Well, it's obviously a matter of speculation, but my take is that it's too good, too much technology for the time. I believe that once you landed in New York or in Los Angeles, it was enough to just pull the crown of your regular time only watch and move it six or nine or three hours forward and backward. No, I think here Patrick Philippe and Mr. Cotier solved the problem that nobody asked to solve. And therefore these pieces weren't a great commercial success. We know that because so many have remained unsold for years until the 60s, 70s, and in some instances, even in the 80s. That's one of my personal favorites. And if you were the gentleman horologist in the 1980s, right at the beginning of the renaissance of mechanical watchmaking, you could not not fall in love with the last iteration, the fourth series of the 2499. Enough has been said about its fabulous case with the lug design that started in 1951, which still today Patrick Philippe uses. In fact, just now at Watches and Wonders, a new iteration of the perpetual calendar split second chronograph, the 5204 was launched. And yet still today, this is the design that makes a Patrick Philippe chronograph with perpetual calendar instantly recognizable. This watch is a premium example with absolutely wonderful definition, crisp hallmarks, a beautiful unrestored dial with only two owners since new. And I still believe it is difficult to find a watch, a wristwatch, a complicated watch, a complicated Patrick Philippe wristwatch that gives more visual, intellectual, emotional satisfaction than a 2499-100. These four watches or timekeepers and many others will be shown in our upcoming exhibition here in Geneva. We look forward to welcoming you. We would be delighted to present you these four and many other watches together with highlights from our New York and Hong Kong auctions. See you there. Don't miss it.