Antiquorum to auction FDR, Charlie Chaplin watches
May 03, 2007
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| This LeRoy and Fils pocket watch, once owned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, will be featured at Antiquorum's Geneva auction. |
Geneva—Watch auctioneer Antiquorum will hold its "Important Collectors' Watches, Pocket Watches and Clocks" sale in
Geneva from May 12-13.
Included among the auction's nearly 700 lots are watches formerly owned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Charlie Chaplin, as well as horological documents and tools, and a collection of 400 watch keys.
Antiquorum says one of the main highlights of the sale is the rare and important platinum Patek Philippe minute-repeating wristwatch, Ref. 5033, which will take its place on the auction block for the first time. A second highlight is a make by the same manufacturer, Ref. 5016, also in platinum.
The auction will feature a number of watches with historical provenance, including an 18-karat rose gold and polychrome enamel minute-repeating pocket watch by Le Roy and Fils, circa 1890, that once belonged to
Franklin D. Roosevelt. The watch, lot 302, is estimated at $90,000-$105,000.
An IWC wristwatch, lot 303, formerly owned by silent film star Charlie Chaplin
(right), is estimated at $15,000-$18,000. Antiquorum says the center-seconds, self-winding watch in 18-karat pink gold is accompanied by the extract from the archives and a hand-written letter by Chaplin's son, Eugene Chaplin, attesting to the watch's authenticity.
In addition, the sale will feature two Rolex prisoner-of-war watches, one including a collection of unpublished cartoons, illustrations and photographs kept by a British soldier imprisoned at a camp in Nazi Germany.
Previews of the show will be held in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei, Taiwan, before returning to Antiquorum's showroom in Geneva. The Geneva sale will take place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
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