Auctions, Formula 1, and What’s Wrong with Breguet? Your Questions Answered | Mailbag

All the random stuff you guys send me.

I get a lot of DMs, tips, and emails about watches. This week, I’m looking at a few. We’ve got an auction preview, an investor who wants to fix Breguet (me too), finding a job in watches, Formula 1 overload, and some old Patek catalogs.

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A Rapid, Random Preview of the Geneva Auctions

The big Geneva auctions are this week. The catalogs: Sotheby’s, Phillips, Antiquorum, Christie’s. I won’t be there, so I’ll keep the coverage light, but managed to squeeze a ~28-minute visit to Antiquorum in April while they were setting up their preview. Here’s what I saw:

Patek, Crooked Numerals, and Condition vs. Rarity

A steel Patek Philippe 530 with a rosy dial and applied Breguet numerals. Anything look off to you?

The Patek Philippe ref. 530 Calatrava is already about as rare as they come. It’s one of the rarest vintage Calatrava references around, featuring an oversized 36.5mm case. Whenever they come to auction, they sell for a healthy six figs–the last couple for $800k and $400k (the latter with a restored dial).

Antiquorum has this steel 530 with Breguet numerals and a rosy dial. It’s a classic rarity vs. condition conundrum: The watch has obviously seen a cleaning: the crooked numerals (note the 8 and 10 in particular), vertical brushing on the dial, and enlarged pearls on the outer track are all signs.

The crooked numerals are clear signs of cleaning–but it’s still a rare Calatrava.

But this thing is still rare, and it’s got a CHF 200-400k estimate to show for it. Antiquorum says it’s fresh to market and was serviced by Patek Philippe in 1999. If that was the last service, those Patek watchmakers must’ve been sipping something good to put the numerals on that crooked.

I’ve mentioned before that I usually prioritize condition over rarity, but maybe a 530 is an exception? I mean, I almost feel like you or I could straighten up that “8” in an HSNY 101 class. Here’s the ref. 530 at Antiquorum.

The Tourbillon Prototype That Eventually Became the Audemars Piguet ‘Thinnest Tourbillon in the World’

A prototype ultra-thin tourbillon developed by Beyner while he was at Ebauches, hence the company’s logo at 12 o’clock.

André Beyner and Maurice Grimm were the Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart of their era. They first created the Delirium in the ‘70s, the thinnest watch in the world. Beyner was at the forefront of Ebauches (eventually ETA/Swatch Group), pioneering all kinds of tech in watches.

After Delirium, Beyner and Grimm collaborated on a project to create an ultra-thin tourbillon. They built a few prototypes to present to brands. Eventually, Georges Golay and Audemars Piguet acquired the project.

It became the AP cal. 2870, launching in the ref. 25643 “Sunray” as the first—and thinnest—automatic tourbillon wristwatch ever made.

This is prototype No. 1, coming directly from the family of Beyner, who died in 2023. Another prototype sold at Phillips in 2016 for $30k, but the market’s come a long way since then, and that wasn’t Beyner’s personal prototype.

It’s a cool piece of modern watch history.

Younger collectors/dealers love this era, at least a few of you (subscribers) have gotten into the Sunray AP the past few years (and have the service bills to show for it…). This prototype is the next boss after the Sunray.

Estimate CHF15-25k, but if everything checks out, I’d expect it to do more.

Suzanne Rohr, Our Queen, and a Patek Philippe Pocket Watch

Usually, collectors collect brands, but the work of certain artisans is so recognized that it’s sought after on its own merits. Suzanne Rohr is at the top of the list.¹

A master enameller based in Geneva, Rohr has been producing commissions for Patek Philippe since 1967. This pocket watch is absolutely striking in person—it’s like someone zapped “The Wine Glass” by Vermeer to shrink it into your palm without losing a single brush stroke.

If I recall, there are like two or three collectors who fight over all the good Rohrs.² Last time a Vermeer by Rohr came up in 2021, a bidding war between two of them led to a million-dollar result. I’m not sure the same will happen this time around, but this is a special pocket watch. Antiquorum also says it’s fresh to market, from the original German family. Estimate CHF250-450k.

RELATED: In vintage watches, we love to tout the work of the great craftspeople like Suzanne Rohr and Jean-Pierre Hagmann. I hope that going forward, large brands can be confident enough in their own stature to name individual artisans or allow them to sign their work so they can be recognized for generations to come.

There are 790 lots at Antiquorum, which is absolutely insane, so buyer beware, but there are a few gems within.

Let me know if you want to hear anything else about auctions this weekend (or if you don’t really care).

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If you’re looking for a sale that might sneak under the radar, pay attention to Dr. Crott in Germany on May 10.

• Here’s a super early, full set, closed caseback Lange 1. It was purchased in December 1994, just two months after the brand officially relaunched. A few interesting Langes throughout the sale, and now’s a good time to buy.

• I’ll be curious to see how this second series Patek 3970 does, especially after Sotheby’s Hong Kong just sold a second series 3970R for $280k.

• Blancpain “Masterpiece” collection. I wrote all about the Blancpain Six Masterpieces a few years ago when Ben of Watch Brothers London sold set No. 1/99. Crott is selling set No. 14 (est. €30–130k). Not so bad if you consider the original retail price was CHF 385k in 1991. Ben listed his set in 2023 for $125k, then sold it shortly after that article ran.

A lot more Lange, IWC, Blancpain, Rolex, and other watches you’d expect from a sophisticated German in the Crott catalog.

Finally, a Beater Patek QP on eBay. Meanwhile, there’s also this “beater” Patek 3448 Perpetual Calendar banging around eBay from National Rarities, everyone’s favorite purveyor of random watches and bi-weekly auctions.³ It’s got a service dial and Patek won’t issue an archive (important for Patek collectors to verify originality/correctness), but if you really want a 3448 and really don’t want to spend 3448 money, and don’t mind potentially lighting money on fire, have at it.

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Re: Watches Keep Getting Better

Watches Keep Getting Better. It Might Also Be Their Biggest Problem.

The underlying tension I was getting at in last week’s essay about how watches keeping getting better, and whether that’s a problem, was between mass production and traditional craft. Most of the “keeps getting better” refers to mass production methods that are becoming better, more efficient, and cheaper.

But this can come at the expense of the old way of doing things. The vintage watches above have hard enamel signatures, Breguet overcoils, and beautiful enamel painting—all rare today.

I was flipping through Dr. Crott’s The Dial this weekend (my favorite watch book), and he mentions this. He references various Rolex patents related to laser-engraving dials and the new opportunities this can create. For example, fancy new laser technology is used on the Land-Dweller dial, which is probably the worst part of the LD.

Dr. Crott’s closing almost sounds like a warning:

“The introduction of new technologies has significantly widened the scope of possibilities in dial-making. As in so many other watchmaking fields, process automation and the serialization of manufacturing tasks have helped increase production capacity and productivity, sometimes to the detriment of fascinating traditional crafts.”

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This Investor Wants In At Swatch Group—Here’s How He’d Fix Breguet

There’s one brand everyone’s rooting for: Breguet.

We all have ideas for how to fix it. Breguet just promoted a CEO from Omega (Gregory Kissling), who people seem to think has promise. That is, if Swatch Group and Breguet’s President, who’s more interested in diving (and Blancpain) than Breguet, can get out of the way.

Now, a U.S. investor wants a spot on Swatch Group’s board so he can chime in with some ideas of his own.

“I see a company [Swatch Group] with incredible potential,” says Steven Wood, an investor based in New York. But Swatch Group has disappointed investors and collectors for years. He says Breguet presents the biggest opportunity.

“Breguet is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year…and just announced one basically identical classique for their anniversary, that’s it,” Wood says. He calls the valuation of Swatch Group “astoundingly cheap.”

He’s not wrong.

We’re already into May of the 250th anniversary year for perhaps the most historic watchmaker, and all we’ve got to show for it is a watch with one hand. Think of what Vacheron has already done for its 270th.

Wood has a plan for Breguet to “regain its rightful place next to Rolex and Patek Philippe”:

“Breguet needs to invest in creating a best-in-class customer experience and add personalization programs at scale, emphasizing scarcity and exclusivity.”

It’s not much, but it’s at least a concept of a plan?

Rumor is that LVMH tried to scoop up Breguet for $4 billion.