This pistol-watch-perfume sprinkler is an example of the demands for clocks and automata by the Imperial Court in China, as well as European aristocrats and royal families, during the 18th and 19th centuries. The piece will be offered at Christie’s Hong Kong auction of Important Watches.

Tweet

Comments

Save E-mail

Send this URL to a friend:

* - Denotes a required field.
Your Name*
Your Email Address*
Friend's Name*
Friend's Email Address*
Subject*
Message*

Print

Hong Kong--Christie’s will hold a sale of “Important Watches” here on Nov. 30, offering more than 550 rare timepieces valued in excess of $11 million.

Highlighting the sale is a pistol combined with a watch and perfume sprinkler that serves as a marriage of 19th century Swiss technology and craftsmanship. The piece illustrates the creativity of watch makers in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and is estimated to realize $350,000-$550,000 at auction.

A rare and previously unrecorded enamel and diamond-set ring watch (below), circa 1810, with its original fitted box will be offered at the sale. Ring watches first appeared in the 16th century and have been a subject of fascination because of the horological mastery needed to construct a functioning movement of such small size.

According to Christie’s, only a handful of ring watches with complications have appeared on the open market to date. This particular ring watch features a rare and unusual characteristic of a quarter-repeating mechanism combined with two automatons in the form of two cupids whose arms are striking the past hours and quarters alternately on two small bells atop the dial. The piece is estimated to realize $87,500-$112,500.

A rare Patek Philippe (Ref. 5013) timepiece (below), first introduced in 1992, will be included in the auction. Part of Philippe’s “Grand Complication” series, the minute-repeating wristwatch features an automatic movement combined with a perpetual calendar and retrograde date. Production of this reference ceased in 2010, and the watch is one of only five examples in yellow gold to have ever reappeared on market. The piece is estimated to realize $300,000-$500,000.

High jewelry watches will also appear in the auction. A diamond-encrusted Vacheron Constantin Pagoda Kalla (below), set with approximately 312 diamonds with a total weight of roughly 65 carats, is estimated to realize $150,000-$250,000.

Highlights from the sale will travel for public exhibition before the auction. Dates are as follows:

Christie’s Bangkok: Nov. 8-9
Hotel de Bergues, Geneva: Nov. 10-15
Fubon Life Assurance Building, Taipei: Nov. 19-20
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre: Nov. 24-30