Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is thrilled to welcome you to The New York Sessions, Fall 2025, Online Auction, running from 12:00 PM ET, Thursday, 2 October, to 12:00 PM ET, Friday, 10 October. The sale features more than 70 high-end luxury wristwatches, covering a range of brands, including A. Lange & Söhne, Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe.
– By Logan Baker
Co-branded watches are nothing new. For more than a century, watchmakers have relied on retail partners to stamp their names on dials, building visibility and spreading the reputation of “Swiss Made” around the world. Tiffany & Co. helped Patek Philippe conquer North America. Serpico y Laino and Freccero & Co. did the same across South America.
Even as the global economy opened, authorized dealers expanded, and e-commerce grew, the idea of co-branding never disappeared. Instead, it evolved. Retailers and partners became increasingly involved, experimenting with materials, colors, and packaging. Limited editions began to replace simple stamped dials.
Today, collaborations are everywhere. Watch brands partner with magazines, local clubs, even film studios and scientific institutions. The goal remains the same: broaden the audience, tap into different markets, and create something memorable.
The most successful collaborations are not exercises in logo placement but genuine exchanges of ideas. They respect the DNA of the watchmaker while introducing a fresh perspective from the outside partner. The cult-classic TAG Heuer Skipper Limited Edition for Hodinkee, for instance, grew out of Hodinkee’s editorial knowledge of vintage Heuer and a community that had long admired the original (extremely rare) Skipper from the 1960s. The result was not a novelty for novelty’s sake but a contemporary watch with authentic historical grounding.
Similarly, the "Silver Snoopy Award" that appears on certain Omega Speedmaster Professional watches demonstrates how a collaboration can inject playfulness without diluting seriousness. Rooted in Omega’s long-standing ties to NASA, the watch celebrates the “Silver Snoopy Award” bestowed by the astronauts themselves. By embracing the comic-strip beagle, Omega managed to connect collectors with a rich backstory while maintaining the Speedmaster’s professional credibility. It was both fun and faithful, and that balance is what collectors responded to.
At the other end of the spectrum, collaborations can succeed by embracing individual personalities. The Richard Mille RM011 Felipe Massa is inseparable from its ambassador, the Brazilian Formula One driver who wore the prototypes during races. The partnership underscored Richard Mille’s high-performance ethos, while Massa’s involvement gave credibility to the claim of creating a mechanical watch capable of withstanding the most extreme conditions. The design cues borrowed from racing further tied the product to its inspiration, making the watch an extension of both the brand’s and the driver’s identity.
Independent watchmakers have proven equally adept at collaboration, often using partnerships to expand the vocabulary of what a mechanical watch can be. Ressence’s Type I Squared X Time by Colour, inspired by Harvard neuroscientist Christopher Harvey, reimagined the watch as a tool for visualizing time perception rather than simply measuring hours and minutes. The collaboration worked precisely because it fused Ressence’s innovative design language with Harvey’s scientific expertise, yielding a result neither could have achieved alone.
And sometimes, success lies in embracing whimsy with integrity. Konstantin Chaykin’s Minions watch, developed with Universal Pictures, could easily have become a gimmick. Instead, it applied Chaykin’s celebrated Joker watch architecture to the mischievous yellow creatures, resulting in a piece that is both playful and mechanically sophisticated. It spoke to collectors because it was executed with the same seriousness of craft as his more traditional work.
Phillips itself has not been a bystander in this trend. In recent years, we've initiated collaborations with the likes of Zenith, Laurent Ferrier, Bulgari, and Massena LAB. These projects were never about attaching a second name to the dial. They told stories about shared passions, revived forgotten designs, and explored ideas that might not have fit into a traditional catalogue. By keeping production numbers low, quality high, and narratives rich, these collaborations demonstrated that auction houses can also play a role in shaping the culture of contemporary watchmaking.
What unites all these examples is a clear sense of purpose. A successful watch collaboration feels inevitable in hindsight. It honors the heritage of the brand, highlights the personality or expertise of the partner, and gives collectors a story worth retelling. Most of all, it produces a watch that can stand on its own merits, even when stripped of the marketing fanfare.
The Phillips New York Sessions, Fall 2025, Online Auction will feature five collaborative watches, each born of different circumstances but all successful in their own way: Omega’s Snoopy Speedmaster, Richard Mille’s Felipe Massa chronograph, TAG Heuer’s Skipper for Hodinkee, Ressence’s project with a Harvard neuroscientist, and Konstantin Chaykin’s Minions watch.
Collaboration in watchmaking has never been more visible than it is today, but the underlying principles have not changed. The projects that endure are those built on authenticity, creativity, and execution. When two parties bring their best ideas to the table, the result is more than the sum of its parts. It is a watch that belongs not just to a brand or a partner, but to the story of watchmaking itself.
You can view the complete Phillips New York Sessions, Fall 2025, Online Auction catalogue here.