Our first live auctions of fall 2024 season, PHILLIPS RELOADED: The Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking, 1980-1999, and the Geneva Watch Auction: XX, take place on November 8, 9, and 10, at the Hotel President, at Quai Wilson 47, in central Geneva. The auctions include more than 195 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think they're some of the best catalogs we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sales over the next month, including the watches highlighted in this article.
There are more than 60 incredible timepieces to discover in the catalog for our upcoming RELOADED thematic auction. There's so many wonderful watches to discover that it can be extremely difficult to select a single lot from the sale that's right for you.
Alas, the heart wants what the heart wants.
We believe it's foolish to turn away from the watches you love the most, so while preparing for Phillips RELOADED, we challenged a number of specialists and staffers in the Phillips Geneva office on what watch – one watch – would they choose to take home with them, if they could?
Their answers might surprise you.
Lot 33: A 1991 Franck Geneve Janus Double-Sided Single-Button Chronograph in Platinum
Estimate: CHF 100,000 - 200,000
Alexandre Ghotbi, Deputy Chairman, Watches, Head of Watches, Europe, and Middle East
In 2024 we tend to forget what an incredible watchmaker Franck Muller was in the 1980s-1990s. He was truly a master of complications astounding the watch world with a new complication eavch year, all delicately made by himself in his workshops. The present watch undelines Mullers forward thinking phylosophy and his classical appriach to watchmaking.
Lot 64: A 1996 Patek Philippe Minute Repeater Ref. 3979 in 18k Pink Gold
Estimate: CHF 250,000 - 500,000
Tiffany To, Head of Sale, Geneva
I love this reference 3979 because it is so understated, yet very much cool. It packs a punch in its 33mm case and when wearing it, only those “in the know” would realize that it’s the only one known in pink gold. Not only that, but the reference marks an important milestone in the brand. When launched in 1989 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the manufacture, the reference 3979 housed Patek Philippe’s very first self-winding minute repeating wristwatch by the brand.
Lot 37: A 1982 Audemars Piguet Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5552BA in 18k Yellow Gold with Diamond- and Sapphire-Set Bezel
Estimate: CHF 30,000 - 60,000
Marcello de Marco, Senior International Specialist
The two decades of the 1980s and 90s were very transformative for watchmaking and one of my favorite pieces from Reloaded perfectly encapsulates this flux. Superbly over-the-top, this 1981 AP is a sapphire and diamond set perpetual calendar wristwatch. Just a little more than a decade earlier, it would have been unconceivable to market a men’s complicated watch with such an amount of gems. In fact, even in the early 1980s, this trend - today fully embraced by the market - was still quite frowned upon: this truly is a watch ahead of its times.
I always had a penchant for gem-set pieces, so this one is just down my alley, but some details betray the utmost care the brand placed into creating this piece and can be appreciate objectively, most notably the subtle echoing of the blue sapphire bezel in the blue tracks to the edges of the subsidiary dials.
Lot 5: A Circa 1990 Breguet Tourbillon Ref. 3450 in Platinum and Pink Gold
Estimate: CHF 25,000 - 50,000
Arthur Touchot, International Head of Digital Strategy, Specialist
I think it’s obvious what the most important watches of this sale are, but what’s enjoyable about this catalogue is seeing the level of the watches below CHF 50,000. Among them, the Breguet reference 3450 is a standout not just because it features a tourbillon—Breguet's most iconic invention—but because it hails from the Daniel Roth era, a time when the brand underwent a renaissance. Roth’s tenure is often regarded as Breguet’s last great era, largely because of the unique ability he had to draw watches that honour the legacy of Abraham-Louis Breguet while adding a contemporary touch.
The reference 3450 is one of the last vestiges of that era, and what I really enjoy about this example are the finer details, including intricate engraving on the baseplate. It isn’t obvious, and I enjoy the idea that it is kept almost like a secret for the watch’s owner. Finally, I’ve seen this reference in a number of case materials, but this is the first time I see one with pink gold accents on the platinum case. I’m usually not a fan of two-tone watches, but the way the gold is used here adds a subtle warmth to the otherwise cool, formal design, of the watch.
Lot 50: A 1992 Daniel Roth Chronograph Ref. 2147 in Platinum
Estimate: CHF 25,000 - 50,000
Clément Finet, Watchmaker, Senior Watch Specialist
This auction is full of "obvious" watches… Obvious because beautiful, obvious because technically superior, obvious because historically important…
All watches so obvious that no serious connoisseur or collector will ever pass by without noticing them… That said, collecting at a “high level” also implies spotting the “less obvious” and that is perhaps when specialists come in the most handy: flagging the less obvious but truly worth while watches.
My pick of the day clearly falls in that category but it is also a tribute to the the aficionados of the 80’, 90’ and early 2000 without who the watch world of today would be so different - and I suspect even a bit boring…
Indeed, we always celebrate the genius and audacity of those daring young watchmakers (Roth, Parmigiani, Journe…) who set sail in an economic environment which was no where near what it is today. These “sailors”, these pioneers were not out for land, they were out for something different: their counterpart pionniers, the collectors of the day - people equally as daring and passionate as they were!
Without these collectors, no Journe, no Dufour, no Kari, no Rexhep… and believe me, all of these guys know exactly what they owe to their first clients.
This number 3 Daniel Roth Chronograph accompanied with a hand written letter from the Master to the original owner tells the tale of that story… Thank you Pioneers!
Lot 16: A Circa 1993 Possibly Unique Blancpain World Time Prototype in 18k Yellow Gold with J.P. Hagmann Case
Estimate: CHF 15,000 - 30,000
Logan Baker, Senior Editorial Manager
Have you ever come across a Blancpain Worldtime from the golden era of the brand under Biver and Piguet's ownership? I hadn’t either—until recently.
The vision of the two masterminds behind Blancpain’s revival in the 1980s and 1990s was to create watches featuring the most intricate and significant complications in horology, known as the 6 Masterpieces. These included the ultra-slim (not a complication in itself, but challenging enough to be considered), the full calendar with moonphase, the perpetual calendar, the chronograph, the minute repeater, and the tourbillon. By the late 1980s, Blancpain had released all of these complications and had even begun combining them within single timepieces.
However, a worldtime watch was never part of this 6 Masterpiece collection and was absent from Blancpain's catalogs of the time. Jean-Claude Biver confirmed that the example you see here is a unique prototype that never went into serial production.
The worldtime mechanism was developed by Svend Andersen, who established his workshop in the early 1980s, creating worldtime watches inspired by Cottier’s iconic models from the 1940s, with all functions controlled via the crown. Another legendary name linked to this piece is JP Hagmann, who crafted the case (his initials are engraved inside the caseback). Hagmann is widely regarded as one of the greatest case makers in horological history.
Though the caseback is marked with the number 3, this Blancpain Worldtime, making its auction debut nearly 30 years after its creation, is the only known example.
You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Phillips RELOADED catalog right 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.
Recommended Reading
Inside Derek Pratt’s Oval Pocket Watch