Currently open for online bidding till Dec 14, 2021, Christie’s in Geneva is holding an online auction for over 300 wristwatches, clocks, and pocketwatches. The Christie’s Watches Online: The Geneva Edit - An Important Private Collection includes rare timepieces offered by Breguet, Patek Phillippe, Audemars Piguet, Ilbery, and Henry Capt amongst others, amassed over a lifetime by a European collector. Complications include tourbillons, perpetual calendars, and minute repeaters, amongst others. The pieces also feature exceptional enamelling craftsmanship.

According to Rémi Guillemin, Head of Watches, Christie’s, Geneva, “What is astonishing about this collection is the sheer breadth of different complications. What we see here is the lifetime passion of a private collector, offering a unique opportunity to share a journey – and to discover timepieces that have never been on the market or rediscover others that has been unattainable for so long, and each of the 316 pieces is in remarkably pristine condition.”

The auction includes a range of timepieces like Omega’s ‘Turler’ wristwatch, Albert Pellaton’s One-Minute Tourbillion Pocket Watch, Girard Perregaux’s One-Minute Tourbillion Hunter-Case Pocket Watch, Jaquet Droz’s Pump Winding Pocket Watch, and Bovet Fleurier’s Silver and Pearl OpenFace Pocket Watch, made exclusively for the Chinese market.

Here are five pocket watches from Christie’s Watches Online: The Geneva Edit - An Important Private Collection that caught our attention:

Lot 20 – Breguet, yellow gold and enamel openface pocket watch, No. 30692

One of the most exciting timepieces at the auction is the Breguet No. 30692, an openface pocket watch created around 1840. With exquisite colourful enamelling, the yellow-gold-and-enamel 48mm piece has a dial made of white enamel featuring Turkish numerals. The time-only pocket watch is key-wound.

Current bid stands at CHF 3,000.

Lot 17 - Ilbury, yellow gold, enamel and diamond-set openface pocket watch, No. 5486

This 58mm yellow gold pocketwatch, circa 1800, features enamel-work and is diamond-studded, the stones set in a beautiful floral arrangement on a blue enamel caseback. It has a white enamel dial with a key-wound movement. 

Current bid stands at CHF 14,000.

Lot 19 - Breguet, half quarter-repeating openface pocket watch, No. 2267

Created in 1806, this 44mm pocket watch is made in yellow gold with a gilt dial, its movement key-wound. The pocketwatch is a half quarter-repeater, and comes with a Breguet Certificate No. 3617 dated 25 February 1980, and Breguet Certificate No. 2995 dated 30 October 1962.

Current bid stands at CHF 6500

Lot 135 - Patek Phillipe repeating split-seconds chronograph openface pocket watch

Circa 1919, this 47mm pocket timepiece comes in yellow gold with a while enamel dial, with a manual and keyless movement. This Patek Phillipe Phillipe timepiece is a minute repeating split chronograph and comes with a case no 174242.

Current bid stands at CHF 26,000

Lot 169 – Breguet, yellow gold quarter-repeating openface pocketwatch, No. 3789

Circa 1820, the Repeating Openface Pocket Watch, has a yellow gold case with a 36mm diameter. The dial of this watch is a guillochéd silver with a key-wound movement. The pocketwatch comes with a yellow gold chain and yellow gold key, and a Breguet Certificate No. 3091 dated 6 April 1964, and presentation box.

Current bid stands at CHF 1100