Article | Specialists Picks Aurel Bacs Alexandre Ghotbi Phillips Geneva Watch Auction Xxiv November 2026

Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is delighted to present The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV, a live auction taking place on 7–8 November 2026 at the Hotel President in Geneva. Featuring more than 220 exceptional luxury timepieces from leading makers including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Cartier, and F.P. Journe, the sale includes the four timepieces featured in this story.

Not every important watch announces itself immediately. Some reward a second look – at the dial, the movement, the provenance, or the person who made it. For their Specialists’ Picks from The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV, Aurel Bacs and Alexandre Ghotbi each choose two watches with considerably more to them than first meets the eye.

Aurel Bacs, Senior Consultant

My two picks are almost the opposite of what they appear to be at first sight. There are watches you can recognize across the street because of their stones, colorful enamel dials, or the number of hands on the dial. These two are different. Unless you are really a specialist and have the opportunity to examine them up close, you could almost dismiss them as simple watches. But that is precisely what makes them so interesting to me.

Lot 128: A 1941 Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 530 in stainless steel with applied Breguet numerals

Estimate: CHF 400,000–800,000

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The first is this Patek Philippe Ref. 530 from 1941. It is stainless steel, made during the Second World War, and has the most amazing multi-tone dial.

The dial is composed of different sections with different finishes and tones, including a mirror-polished ring, and is adorned with applied Breguet numerals. More than half a century later, Patek Philippe returned to this type of design with the Ref. 5196.

I have known this watch for a long time. We first discovered it in Eastern Europe and brought it to market in the 2000s, and it appeared again at Phillips during our early years. On both occasions there was fierce competition among some of the world's leading collectors.

What I particularly like is that everything is so discreet. You have to look closely to understand just how special the dial is. The Extract from the Archives confirms not only the stainless steel case, but also the Breguet numerals. It is the kind of detail that makes an already beautiful watch much more important.

Lot 88: A 1954 Vacheron Constantin minute repeater Ref. 4261 in platinum, made for Lamine Bey, the Bey of Tunis

Estimate: CHF 200,000–400,000

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The Vacheron Constantin is similar in spirit, but completely different in execution. It is not stainless steel but platinum, the rarest metal Vacheron Constantin used for its minute repeaters, and inside is the large, very thin 13-line minute repeater movement.

The dial has 12 diamond hour markers, giving it a very discreet but slightly formal, almost tuxedo-like appearance. The case has those wonderful teardrop lugs that are so characteristic of Vacheron Constantin in the 1940s and 1950s.

And then there is the detail that gives everything away: the repeater slide on the left side of the case. If that part of the watch were hidden under your cuff, you might think you were simply looking at an elegant two-hand watch.

There is one final secret. At the bottom of the dial is a barely visible Arabic signature belonging to Lamine Bey, the last Bey of Tunis, for whom the watch was made. The signature has faded over time and can almost look like a smudge, but under the right light it reappears. It is another detail that you could easily miss unless you knew exactly what you were looking at.

For me, these two watches are a perfect example of less being more.

Alexandre Ghotbi, Deputy Chairman, Head of Watches, Europe & Middle East

I want to talk about the French monarchy, a math teacher, and the Iron Curtain. One watch comes from one of the greatest living watchmakers. The other comes from a great watchmaker you have probably never heard of.

Lot 7: A 2002 F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Régence” in platinum with a hand-engraved pink gold dial

Estimate: CHF 1,000,000–2,000,000

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Let's start with François-Paul Journe and the Chronomètre à Résonance with Régence dial.

This is a 38mm Résonance with a brass movement and an extraordinary hand-engraved dial. What I find fascinating is that F.P. Journe was still a very young brand at the time, yet François-Paul was already looking beyond the mechanical side of watchmaking and thinking about how decorative arts could become part of it.

This very watch was exhibited in Geneva in 2020 for the 20th anniversary of the Chronomètre à Résonance. Beside it was a rather cryptic plaque simply stating that three examples had been made. Naturally, that made us want to dig deeper.

We were able to identify one example with a white gold dial that remains with F.P. Journe, another with a yellow gold dial that is now in a private collection, and this watch with its brilliant pink gold dial. It is the only example with this dial configuration that we have been able to identify.

The watch appeared at auction more than a decade ago and has since formed part of one of the great F.P. Journe collections. If you ask me where to find another 38mm brass-movement Résonance with this pink gold Régence dial, I am afraid I cannot point you to one.

Lot 61: A circa 1985 Richard Miklosch flying tourbillon pocket watch with detent escapement in silver

Estimate: CHF 300,000–600,000

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Now imagine that the high-school math teacher you weren't paying attention to went home after class and made tourbillons and chronometers. That, in essence, was Richard Miklosch.

For some 40 years, Miklosch taught mathematics by day and made watches in his spare time. He was largely self-taught, but in the 1970s he did something rather extraordinary: living in West Germany, he traveled behind the Iron Curtain to Glashütte in East Germany to learn from Alfred Helwig, one of the great figures of German tourbillon making.

He later rubbed shoulders with watchmakers including Derek Pratt, George Daniels, and Philippe Dufour, while Kari Voutilainen has named Miklosch as one of his own influences.

What I love about this watch is how completely Miklosch it is. He made his watches by hand using very simple tools and, at times, ordinary household tools. He made the movements, cases, and dials himself. He did not even use a conventional movement holder when assembling them, instead working with the movement in his hand.

Here you have a flying tourbillon with an Earnshaw detent escapement, presented with extraordinary visual economy. On the movement side, you see the tourbillon, the barrel, and the bridge. Almost everything else is hidden because Miklosch wanted your attention on what he considered essential.

He produced only around a dozen pocket watches during his lifetime, and they are almost entirely in private hands. That makes the opportunity to handle one, let alone offer one at auction, something very special.

You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV catalog here.