Article | Neo Vintage Audemars Piguet Patek Philippe Vacheron Constantin Phillips Hong Kong Fall 2026 Online Auction

Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is pleased to present The Hong Kong Sessions, Fall 2026, an online auction running from 17–24 September. Featuring more than 150 exceptional luxury timepieces from leading makers including A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, F.P. Journe, Vacheron Constantin, and Patek Philippe, the sale includes all seven watches featured in this story.

The term “neo-vintage” has become part of the watch-collecting lexicon in recent times, generally referring to watches made from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. It was a fascinating period: mechanical watchmaking had emerged from the quartz crisis, complicated watches were enjoying a major revival, and many of the collections we know today had yet to assume their current form.

That makes the era especially interesting when looking at Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin – the so-called Holy Trinity of Swiss watchmaking. If you look beyond the best-known Royal Oaks, Nautiluses, and Overseas models, you can find all manner of inventive creations: wandering hours, jumping hours, elaborate openworking, unconventional case shapes, métiers d’art, and even a hand-engraved Ferrari.

Here are seven examples from The Hong Kong Sessions, Fall 2026, that show just how varied things could get during this period of horological ferment.

Audemars Piguet Ref. 14677BA “Ferrari 315 S”

Motor racing and watches have long gone hand in hand, but Audemars Piguet took the relationship in a novel direction with a small series of dress watches created during the early 1990s.

This yellow-gold Ref. 14677BA from 1992 features a semi-skeletonized dial overlaid with a finely engraved Ferrari 315 S, complete with crossed checkered flags. The openworking also offers glimpses of the automatic movement underneath.

To date, five automotive-themed variants have been identified, depicting cars from Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, and others. The present watch is rarer still: it is the only example currently known with race number “41” engraved on the Ferrari. It is a telling reminder of just how far AP was prepared to venture beyond its more familiar collections during this era.

Audemars Piguet Jumping Hour Minute Repeater Ref. 25723

Introduced in 1992, the Ref. 25723 looked much further back for inspiration. Its rectangular yellow-gold case and jumping-hour display recall Audemars Piguet watches from the 1920s. The hours appear digitally through an aperture at 12 o’clock, jumping forward as the central minute hand completes each circuit of the dial. More impressive is what happens when the slide on the case is activated: the manually wound Caliber 2865 chimes the time as a minute repeater.

The combination had historical precedent at AP, which had paired jumping-hour indications and repeating mechanisms decades earlier. Ref. 25723 therefore saw the manufacture revisit a particular strand of its own past in contemporary form.

And its 38mm by 29mm proportions are interesting in hindsight: just one year after Ref. 25723 made its debut, the Le Brassus brand would unveil the 42mm Royal Oak Offshore – a radically different proposition in both scale and aesthetic.

Audemars Piguet Star Wheel Pocket Watch Ref. 25743BA

Audemars Piguet unveiled the Star Wheel in 1991, reviving a wandering-hours display whose origins stretch back to the 17th century. This 1995 example takes an already unusual idea and puts it into an even rarer format: a pocket watch.

Three transparent sapphire disks, each carrying four hour numerals, rotate around the center of the dial. As the relevant hour reaches the top, its numeral travels across the arcing scale at 12 o’clock to indicate the minutes. Once its hour is up, another disk moves into position.

The effect is eminently easy to read, even if there isn’t a conventional watch hand in sight. Here, the sapphire disks are paired with a guilloché lower dial and housed in a substantial 48mm yellow-gold case. Pocket-watch versions of the Star Wheel are seldom seen, with only a small number known today.

Vacheron Constantin Mercator Ref. 43050

Vacheron Constantin had its own ideas about unconventional displays during the 1990s. Introduced in 1994, the Mercator dispensed with conventional hands in favor of two retrograde indications, with the hours and minutes tracing separate arcs across the lower half of the dial.

Even the hands played into the theme, shaped to evoke a cartographer’s compass. Indeed, the line paid tribute to the 16th-century cartographer Gérard Mercator, with its launch marking the 400th anniversary of his death.

This 1997 Ref. 43050 adds another story. Number 24 of a 30-piece edition, it was created to mark the handover of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. Its polychrome champlevé enamel dial – with enameling by husband-and-wife team Jean and Lucie Genbrugge – depicts Southeast China and Taiwan, with a Chinese junk sailing between the two retrograde scales. The handover date “1 July 1997” appears discreetly along the edge.

Given its subject matter and the occasion it was created to commemorate, its appearance in Phillips’ Hong Kong sale almost three decades later is especially apposite.

Vacheron Constantin Les Complications Skeleton Tourbillon Ref. 30051

By the turn of the millennium, Vacheron Constantin was taking another long-established specialty – openworking – in a decidedly complicated direction.

The Ref. 30051, featured as our title image above, was essentially the skeletonized version of Vacheron Constantin’s first modern tourbillon wristwatch. Much of its Caliber 1760 has been cut away to expose bridges and components, which have then been extensively hand-engraved, providing a spectacular backdrop to the central Dauphine hands and arcing power-reserve indicator. The ensemble is superbly framed by the 38mm pink-gold case and its sizeable bezel.

The tourbillon at 6 o’clock, whose bridge incorporates Vacheron Constantin’s Maltese Cross motif, dominates the dial side, but the twin barrels, gears, and other moving parts complete the show.

With its warm combination of pink gold and gilded movement, skeletonization that is intricate without becoming overwhelming, and moderate proportions, the Ref. 30051 has aged splendidly – still looking the part a quarter of a century later.

Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5040P-013

With the Ref. 5040, Patek Philippe gave the perpetual calendar an unconventional form. In 1992, it paired one of the Geneva manufacture’s signature complications with a tonneau-shaped case – an unusual proposition in a catalog dominated by round perpetual calendars.

Inside sits the automatic Caliber 240 Q, displaying the day, date, month, leap year, moon phases, and 24-hour indication. Outside, the tonneau profile gives the watch a silhouette far removed from better-known Patek perpetual calendars such as the classically round Ref. 3940, launched seven years earlier.

The present example dates to circa 2003 and belongs to what collectors identify as the second series. What’s more, its black dial, applied Breguet numerals, and platinum case lend it a certain rarity: according to Phillips’ research, it is only the 14th platinum Ref. 5040 with a black dial known to have appeared publicly.

Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Mécaniques Ajourées Ref. 82020

Our final watch falls well outside the neo-vintage period, but its presence here is instructive.

Vacheron Constantin introduced the Métiers d’Art Mécaniques Ajourées in 2014, developing an openworked version of its manually wound Caliber 4400. Its architecture took inspiration from the vast glass roofs and ribbed vaults of late-19th-century European railway stations, while the Roman numerals surrounding the movement evoke the large clocks associated with them.

The circa 2020 Ref. 82020/000G-9926 offered here pairs a white-gold case with the gray Grand Feu enamel chapter ring specific to this reference.

The Métiers d’Art collection itself dates to 2005, when it was created to mark Vacheron Constantin’s 250th anniversary. The Mécaniques Ajourées shows how the openworking and decorative craft seen in earlier pieces such as the Ref. 30051 found a new home within Vacheron Constantin’s modern catalog.

You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Hong Kong Sessions, Fall 2026, catalog here.