Throughout 2015 Christie’s celebrates 55 years of stand-alone watch sales. The international department’s first sale of the year will be in Dubai, when Christie’s will offer 185 watches. This is the largest offering of any watch sale in the Middle East and will take place on the night of 19th of March at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel.
The sale will include watches from all major firms. A total of 48 watchmakers from around the world will be represented in this sale and the most vintage watch dates from 1947 and the most modern watch from 2013 – 66 years of watchmaking to be discovered at Christie’s.
Top lot
The top lot of the sale is a Patek Philippe, ref. 5104P, made in 2009 and sold from a distinguished private collection and is one of less than 6 examples to have come up for auction to date, underlining once again the true exclusivity of the brand. Patek Philippe has created a prestigious timepiece that perhaps more than any other reflects the underlying values of the last family-owned watchmaking company in Geneva: innovation and tradition; aesthetics and technology; complexity and simplicity. For the first time a Grande Complication wristwatch crafted by Patek Philippe affords more than a caseback view of the mechanical marvels inside. The 5104 features a transparent dial that reveals the normally concealed complex mechanisms on the front. It takes two years just to craft the parts, assemble the movement and adjust its rate to perfection, meaning that the Geneva based workshop can only produce 8-10 of these rare watches a year (estimate: $450,000-650,000).
Ultimate complications
Beside the Patek Philippe ref. 5401P the sale offers ref. 5951P by the same house, an extremely fine and rare platinum cushion-shaped perpetual calendar single button split second chronograph wristwatch, made circa 2011. Reference 5951P was launched at Baselworld fair in 2010 (estimate: $300,000-500,000).
The Breguet, ref. 3757 is another “classic complications model” made in 2002 with a fine and rare 18k gold perpetual calendar tourbillon movement, a retrograde date and leap year indication (estimate: $60,000-80,000).
Modern masters
The majority of the piecec in the sale represent the modern masters - the vintage trophies of the future. Here you will find the ref. 160.029, the Lange 1 Model by A. Lange & Söhne, made in 2008 (estimate: $25,000-35,000) and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Grand Prix limited edition model, an oversized platinum and ceramic chronograph wristwatch (estimate: $50,000-80,000).
