Antiquorum’s ‘Important Modern and Vintage Timepieces’ Auction!
Antiquorum is a world-famous specialised auction house headquartered in New York City. Since the 1970’s the company has sourced and sold exquisite modern and vintage timepieces. Every year they host five auctions at some of the world’s most luxurious locations, including Hong Kong, Geneva and Monaco. And this weekend, they are preparing to host their second auction of 2018, ‘Important Modern and Vintage Timepieces’ at Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong.
To keep things short and sweet I’ve chosen a few pieces from the most popular brands!
Patek Philippe
Lot. 457 and 464
The most expensive pieces up for sale this weekend are some of the finest Patek Philippe models in existence. Below left is the Patek World Time ref. 7130G. This particular watch has the iconic Patek world time dial layout, which allows its wearer to understand the local time, date and time of one of the many foreign destinations on the location wheel. It’s beautiful 36 mm white gold case features an equally beautiful diamond encrusted bezel, and a matching blue crocodile leather strap. The elegant dress watch is a limited to only 75 pieces worldwide.
Above right is the auction’s high-priced ticket item, the Patek Philippe Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar ref. 5074 J-010. The rich yellow gold and black themed wrist watch features one of Patek’s more complicated movements, and can calculate leap years and moon phases. The stunning piece is very rare and hard to come by, which is why the estimated price is fairly large at 2,600,000- 4,000,000 HKD.
Rolex
Lot. 106 and 470
The Paul Newman Daytona experienced a huge amount of success last year, so much so that auction houses like Phillips and Antiquorum are holding thematic auctions to celebrate the model’s success this summer. Lot 470 is an exceptional example of the greatly admired ref. 6241. The wristwatch features chronograph sub dials with the rare ‘lollipop’ markers, cream dial and red minute markers. I can imagine this particular piece will be extremely popular among Rolex collectors.
The next Rolex is a classic yellow gold Day-Date with pyramid dial. The stunning 35 mm case features a unique pyramid patterned dial with Roman numeral markers and day and date indication. Rolex debuted the Day-Date in 1956, and ever since, it has been favoured by some of the world’s most powerful men, including the former U.S. President JFK, and the incredibly successful business magnate Warren Buffett, (who is worth a whopping $84 billion).
No wonder the bracelet to this watch is called the ‘presidents’ bracelet!
Audemars Piguet
Lot. 176
Probably the most remarkable piece set to appear in today’s auction is the Audemars Piguet Skeleton in platinum. This exquisite piece is so unique, at first glance; you wouldn’t even recognise it was part of the Audemars Piguet family. It is another perfect example of the magic that can happen when you combine horology and haute joaillerie.
The open dial features platinum hour and minute hands, embellished with royal blue sapphires and an incredible oversized platinum bezel, encrusted with round and baguette cut diamonds. Lot 176 is extremely rare and may have even been a special order for a fairly important client. One thing’s for sure; you probably won’t see another one of these popping up in another auction any time soon.
The watches above represent only a small fraction of the total bundle of modern and vintage timepieces that will be going under the hammer today. There will be vintage pieces dating from the 1940’s, ‘new old’ stock and one of a kind pieces available for auction, a ridiculously large selection for those passionate horologists out there.
To view all 470 lots, click here.