Our first live auctions of the fall 2023 season are here! The PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XVIII, takes place on November 3 and 4, at La Réserve Genève, and the Hong Kong Watch Auction: XVII, takes place on November 24 and 25, at our West Kowloon headquarters. The auction includes more than 180 of the world's finest watches – and naturally, there are a small number of extraordinary pieces from Mr. Philippe Dufour, one Simplicity in Geneva and another in Hong Kong. To celebrate the upcoming auctions, we're republishing one of our favorite stories that provides an overview of why Dufour is so revered among collectors.
– By Logan Baker
Philippe Dufour is a mythical figure for a majority of watch lovers. He has no boutique network. He does zero marketing. And his timepieces are far rarer than what you'll find from most of his contemporaries. The whole concept of learning why Dufour is celebrated the way he is might even seem intimidating and unapproachable to many, which is ironic, given that Dufour is a remarkably friendly and kind man.
For instance, when our friends Cyrano Devanthey and Dominique Buser of Oscillon were working on the Naissance d’une Montre 2 project, they spent an afternoon with Dufour at his workshop, where he answered every possible question they might have regarding his finishing techniques. Or you could even take a look at his social media presence – it’s disarmingly casual.
Philippe Dufour is a horological legend in more ways than you can count, but there’s still no reason to be intimidated by either him, or by his work.
Respect it. Embrace it. Revere it. But don’t be afraid of it. That's why we decided to put together this brief guide to make the world of Philippe Dufour a little more accessible. We'll cover some general bullet points about Dufour and his background, before tackling a brief overview of Dufour’s entire oeuvre (so far).
Philippe Dufour is...
... the living embodiment of traditional Vallée de Joux watchmaking.
There is no other watchmaker working today that has dedicated as much time and energy as Dufour has in understanding the horological principles of previous generations of Swiss watchmakers and craftsmen, and then carrying them with him into the current day.
Dufour’s approach to decoration, as well as his early, pioneering experiments with sonneries, are all perfectly aligned with the history of complicated watchmaking in the Vallée de Joux, which dates back to the 18th century, when local farmers would turn to their workbench during the frigid winter months, tinkering with clocks and pocket watches to stay productive, and eventually created a successful cottage industry within the valley.
… a true horological pioneer.
As much as Dufour has focused on traditional techniques throughout his solo career, he also pushed watchmaking forward in major ways. He was the first person to successfully miniaturize a grande et petite sonnerie into wristwatch form in 1992, and four years later, he became the first person to incorporate two escapements into a single wristwatch movement.
… a constant collaborator.
Philippe Dufour is a busy man, but he’s consistently remained hospitable and open to new ideas. His partnership with Daniel Roth in the early-to-mid 1990s resulted in the world’s first instantaneous perpetual calendar wristwatch, which was released under the Daniel Roth label, in 1993.
Dufour is also a founding member of the Time Aeon Foundation, and he’s played an active role – alongside Greubel Forsey – in shephering the Naissance d’une Montre project along. The first Naissance d’une Montre even features Dufour’s name on the primary timekeeping sub-dial, right underneath Greubel Forsey's wordmark.
Finally, and most recently, Dufour teamed up with the prominent collector Claude Sfeir in 2020 to manage all commercial aspects of his current and future watchmaking endeavors.
… not afraid to wear watches from other makers.
If you ever do happen to run into Dufour out and about, check out what’s on his wrist.
He’s frequently spotted wearing an early A. Lange & Söhne Datograph – which has now acquired the nickname Dufourgraph, as a result – a Rolex 'Pepsi' GMT-Master II Ref. 126710 BLRO, and an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ref. 16202.
Not bad at all.
The Philippe Dufour For Audemars Piguet Grande Et Petite Sonnerie Pocket Watch: Where It All Began
Dufour began his career at Jaeger-LeCoultre in the late 1960s, before spending time at Gérald Genta and Audemars Piguet, and then focusing on restoration work for Galerie d’Horlogerie Ancienne. Dufour eventually was able to establish his own workshop in 1978, balancing his time between restoration work and developing a grande and petite sonnerie pocket watch that was inspired by a vintage Reymond Frères caliber.
Once Dufour completed the movement, he cased it in brass and took several meetings with large Swiss brands who he hoped would support the commercialization and serial development of the pocket watch and movement. Audemars Piguet eventually agreed to do so, placing an order for five completed examples.
Dufour delivered the first pocket watch in 1982, and the fifth and final watch in 1988. The exact first one from 1982 was one of the headliners in the Geneva Watch Auction: XVII; you can read my detailed technical overview of the pocket watch, right here.
Dufour and Audemars Piguet went their separate ways fairly quickly after the last pocket watch was delivered. And after working tirelessly for six years for someone else, Dufour was more determined than ever to make a name for himself.
The Philippe Dufour Grande Et Petite Sonnerie Pocket Watch And Wristwatch: When Dufour Does What He Wants
Well, I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler at this point to say that Dufour was rather successful in growing the recognition for his work.
At Baselworld 1992, Dufour presented another grande et petite sonnerie pocket watch, this time with his own name on the dial – the only example he would ever make – as well as a wristwatch outfitted with the complication.
Dufour, of course, was the first watchmaker in the world to accomplish the latter. It took him three years of work to redesign the movement effectively enough to fit inside a 41mm precious-metal case without losing any sound quality or volume.
Dufour made four Grande & Petite Sonnerie wristwatches with grand feu enamel dials, the first in yellow gold, then pink gold, white gold, and platinum. Despite the extremely complex movement, Dufour made the watch simple to use. The crown is wound one way for the movement and the other way for the striking mechanism, similar to the pocket watch design, but the repeater function is actually activated by pushing in the button in the three o'clock crown, and the desired sonnerie mode (Grande Sonnerie, Petite Sonnerie, Silent and Strike) is selected by adjusting the two small slides that surround the crown on the caseband.
At the Geneva Watch Auction: XIV, in November 2021, Phillips had the privilege of selling the unique Grande et Petite Sonnerie pocket watch, as well as the first example (number one) of the Grande et Petite Sonnerie wristwatch. The former sold all-in for CHF 2,329,000, and the latter for CHF 4,749,000, which still stands as the world-record for the most expensive watch from an independent maker. A unique wooden box that was custom designed to hold the Grande et Petite Sonnerie wristwatch and pocket watch together was also sold in the same sale, for CHF 37,800, with all proceeds going toward charity.
The Duality: Two’s Company
We didn’t have to wait too long to discover Dufour’s second wristwatch. Introduced in 1996, the Duality became the world’s first wristwatch to incorporate a double escapement, featuring two independent balance wheels compensated via a central differential gear.
Having two balances connected in this way is meant to support greater precision, as it allows the balances to average out their rates. If one runs slightly faster, and the other a bit slower, the rate variations should cancel each other out. Further, this system produces less variation across multiple positions.
Dufour’s inspiration for the Duality came from a school watch that he handled while attending the Vallée de Joux watchmaking school. It had a single gear train delivering power to two balance wheels through a differential. Dufour was able to shrink the differential mechanism to allow enough space in the movement to incorporate two large balance wheels beating in unison.
Dufour initially planned to make 25 examples of the Duality, however, due to its intense complexity, he only ended up making nine before moving on to focus completely on the production of his next wristwatch.
Phillips sold Duality No.00 in platinum during the November 2017 Winning Icons sale in New York – yes, that was the auction headlined by Paul Newman’s "Paul Newman" Rolex Daytona – for $915,000. Four years later, during the Geneva Watch Auction: XIV, in November 2021, PHILLIPS sold No.8 in pink gold for a remarkable CHF 3,660,000.
The Simplicity: A Game Changer
The Simplicity is the most common and popular watch created by Philippe Dufour. First introduced in 2000, Dufour produced approximately 15 examples per year until the mid-2010s (a few stragglers were created in the late-2010s, as well), ending with a little more than 200 examples produced in total. It’s believed that more than half of that total amount was sold directly to Japanese collectors.
Initially intended to only be offered in a 34mm case, Dufour quickly received a significant number of requests for a larger diameter, resulting in the creation of the 37mm version, which arrived shortly after the debut of the 34mm. It would be too simple to just drop the existing movement into the wider case and add a spacer ring to make it fit, but that isn't Dufour's style, so he ended up redesigning the entire movement to fit the larger size.
The Simplicity movement is based on a Valjoux caliber VZSS that has been heavily reworked. It's the finish that's the star of the show. There's the sumptous anglage with deep interior angles, and then the delicate contrast of the côtes de Genève on the mainplate, highlighting the sheer level of handcraft that goes into each watch. Countersunk screw holes and oversized jewels make the caliber feel like an Observatory pocket watch that's ready for competition. There is also the judicious use of black polishing in key areas, including what is without-a-doubt one of the most beautiful clicks ever created.
Acquiring a Simplicity is a famously difficult process, requiring an introduction to Dufour, as well as additional past clients vouching for you as a worthy recipient. As a result, the watches have mainly ended up with private individuals who were handpicked by Dufour and a network of trusted friends who acted as pseudo-retailers.
As exclusionary as that may sound, it did keep the watches in the hands of the original owners for a longer period than you might expect given the fever pitch surrounding "flipping." In fact, the first Simplicity didn’t appear at auction until 16 years after its initial release, in November 2016, and to date, less than 25 total examples have appeared at public auction, with 13 of those coming through Phillips, including the upcoming "No.000" prototype in 18k pink gold that's included in the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: XVIII, as well as the early 34mm 18k white gold example with serial "No. 09" that is included in the Hong Kong Watch Auction: XVII.
Two other Simplicity highlights to appear at Phillips in recent years include a likely unique white-gold version with a grey dial and applied Breguet numerals that sold for CHF 1,022,200 in Geneva last November, and a platinum 37mm example with an silver-opaline dial that sold a few weeks later in Hong Kong for HKD $6,905,000 (approx. CHF 849,239).
Naissance d’une Montre 1: The Birth Of A Watch:
As mentioned earlier, Philippe Dufour is a founding member of the Time Aeon Foundation, and he played an active role in bringing the first Naissance d’une Montre project to life, working with Greubel Forsey and a young French watchmaker named Michel Boulanger to craft a series of 12 wristwatches entirely by hand using traditional methods.
The prototype example was auctioned off in May 2016 for almost USD $1.5 million, and the remaining 11 watches were sold directly to clients of Greubel Forsey and Dufour. A few of these examples have popped up at auction since 2016, but none of the Naissance d’une Montre 1 pieces have appeared at Phillips, to date.
That said, we were proud to auction off the unique-piece Naissance d’une Montre 2 watch, which will not be produced at all in series, at the Geneva Watch Auction: XVII. Dufour wasn’t as involved this time as he was on the first edition – Urwerk and Greubel Forsey served the role of mentors to the young watchmaking duo behind Oscillon – but he did provide some feedback to the pair on finishing techniques.
The Simplicity 20th Anniversary Edition: Happy Birthday
The watch Dufour is currently focused on completing is a small-batch evolution of the Simplicity that will contain a total of 22 watches, first announced in 2020 in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Simplicity.
The first example – No.00 – was the top lot at our Retrospective: 2000 - 2020 auction in November 2020, where it sold for CHF 1.36 million, a record for a Simplicity of any kind that still stands today. Dufour plans to keep one example in platinum for himself, which means there will be a total of 20 total to be allocated to collectors by Dufour’s business partner, Claude Sfeir.
In total, in addition to the No.00 example, there will be seven watches created in polished 18k white gold with a grey dial, matte hour markers, and black dial printing; seven examples in polished 18k pink gold with a brown dial that has pink gold accents, and polished hour markers;, and seven in brushed platinum with a blue dial, polished hour markers, and dark blue dial printing.
Every example of the Simplicity 20th Anniversary will come in the same 37mm case profile and will feature the same exact hand-wound movement found in the original Simplicity, only it's now topped by a hunter-style caseback that can quickly be popped open for a view of the best-in-class decoration. One difference between the No.00 that sold at Phillips and the rest of the series is the 12 o’clock marker. The No.00 featured a unique logo with an interlocked “P” and “D,” for Philippe Dufour, while the rest of the watches will come with a more conventional Arabic 12 o’clock numeral.
With only 20 total watches being produced, the fight over allocations turned fierce, so Sfeir and Dufour decided to democratize how the final 10 available watches would be allocated, allowing anyone that was interested to enter their contact information into a randomized lottery system hat would then select 10 collectors who would be offered the watch.
Sfeir reported later on that more than 10,000 collectors entered the allocation lottery.
You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Geneva Watch Auction: XVIII catalog here, and the Hong Kong Watch Auction: XVII, here.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade working in watch-focused media, reporting on every aspect of the industry. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
Recommended Reading
A Technical Overview Of Philippe Dufour's First Pocket Watch