Christie's Expects Watch Collection to Fetch over $20M

RAPAPORT... More than 100 extremely rare timepieces from a single owner will make their auction debut at a Christie's sale later this year.The 112 watches were collected over a 40-year period and include some of the earliest pieces by Patek Philippe, Rolex and other well-known makers. The sale, called Legendary and Unique Watches: The Collection of a Lifetime, will take place on November 6 and will be the most important single-owner watch collection auction Christie's has held in Geneva, it said Tuesday. The auction house expects the entire lot to achieve approximately CHF 20 million ($20.7 million).Notable items at the sale include a Richard Mille limited-edition watch featuring a case crafted from a single block of transparent sapphire crystal. It took 40 days of around-the-clock work to create and a further 350 hours to polish. The piece, the first of its kind to be offered at auction, is estimated at up to CHF 4.5 million ($4.7 million).Meanwhile, a Rolex Daytona with a Paul Newman dial, one of only 300 made in 18-karat gold, will go under the hammer. That timepiece is predicted to fetch as much as CHF 1 million ($1 million). A watch by Vacheron Constantin, created in 1994 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the passing of 16th-century cartographer Gerardus Mercator, will also be on offer. Featuring a made-to-order platinum dial and an hour hand that "flies" back to its original position when it reaches 12, the timepiece has a high estimate of CHF 200,000 ($207,076).In the month before the sale, Christie's will preview the watches in New York; Hong Kong; Dubai; London; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Los Angeles.Image: The Richard Mille sapphire crystal watch. (Christie's)