Ineichen Auction House
Fall auctions on the 20th -21st of November.
Overall approximately 300 lots will be put on sale, ranging from pretty low entry price to the type of watches we will go over shortly and naturally you can bid online and you will find the link in the description box below.
We start with this special Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Reference 25829SP. It was a limited-edition complicated wristwatch released 1997 as a series of 25 pieces.
It comes in a steel case combined with a platinum bezel and features a sapphire skeleton dial with sapphire caseback. The caliber 2120/2802 is ultra-thin, self-winding, partially skeletonized and engraved and this automatic movement is based on a movement-blank supplied by Jaeger-LeCoultre, while the calendar module is based on a kit from the famous Dubois Dépraz supplier. The power reserve of this really nice watch goes up to 40 hours.
Another Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Reference 25820TP, but this time it is made from tantalum, a rare lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant.
Same diameter of 39 mm, 9.3 mm thickness and platinum bezel as the previous lot. But this time with matte plain so called “non-tapiserrie” dial. This timepiece has the same power reserve of up to 40 hours and naturally the bracelet is also made of tantalum and that must have been quite a feat to manufacture.
This is another collector`s item because only 15 pieces exist. Extremely rare, the Reference 25820TP in tantalum and platinum is powered by the same ultra-thin self-winding caliber 2120/2802, developed in 1995 with the sophisticated addition of a leap year indicator. It is the first series-produced Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar to be equipped with this indicator
The Star Wheel Automatic, a personal favorite of mine, especially this version coming in a 36mm platinum case, only 8.5mm thick, the reference 25720PT. It comes with a white gold dial decorated with hand-engraved floral ornament, compared to regular guilloche dials for the normal series.
The movement is a self-winding caliber 2124/2812, finished to a high standard as you see through the open caseback revealing finely executed Côtes de Genève and Perlage.
The main particularity of this model is embedded with an unusual wondering hour time indicator with hour markers depicted on three transparent sapphire discs. The discs are mounted on a rotating center ring on star-shaped wheels with flat springs fixing the positions of the stars.
This reference 25720PT is among the rarest, as it was released in a limited edition of only 9 pieces and this model has the limited-edition number 9/9 shown at the bottom of the dial and this might well be the only model from Audemars Piguet with a limited-edition number marked on the dial.
F. P. Journe, an extremely hot brand today, and I will present you this Chronomètre Souverain de Boulle. The production year of this timepiece is 2007 and was originally made for the famous Dallas Diamond & Jewellry Deboule store, who used to be one of the few official US retailer of the brand.
The case of this model is made of platinum, diameter 40mm, thickness 8.6mm, with guilloche dial and a thin caliber 1304 hand-wound in solid 18k gold, something common to FP Journe timepieces since 2004. You have two barrels provide a power reserve of up to 56 hours and this particular model was made in limited edition of 10 pieces.
The movement is of course finished to a high standard with manual decoration of all parts, including chamfering and polishing, plate and bridges decorated with Côtes de Genève, radial Côtes de Genève, and Perlage.
The platinum Chronomètre Souverain de Boulle is one of the rarest versions of this model. And, according to the Ineichen auction house, the lot should be recognized as unique, because this watch was actually owned by Denis de Boulle himself.
So we are lucky to present the Chronomètre à Résonance version coming in a 40mm wide case and 9.1mm thick dating from 2002.
As a quick reminder you have two independent movements more or less stacked onto each other and the aerodynamic interaction of the two balance wheels even themselves out, something François-Paul Journe had been working on for many years and today I would say that this mechanism has become some kind of icon and prices have really exploded in the recent years.
Concerning this model, I just wanted to add that the two hour and minute dials are fully symmetrical and you have one crown at 12 o’clock to adjust the time of both time indication. You pull the crown, turn it in one direction for one of the dial and turn in the opposite direction for the other one and it’s with the same crown that you wind it and fully wound this timepiece holds 42 hours of power reserve.
To synchronize the two seconds sub dials dial you just pull the crown at 4-5 o’clock just like this. Again, this model was limited to 99 pieces as I mentioned before regarding the Ruthenium Collection.
The F. P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain dating from 2002, such an exquisite timepiece. Naturally also a platinum case, 40mm wide and 9.1mm thick.
The matt solid gold dial has been coated with ruthenium, but the interesting aspect on this particular model is that this dial aged and it gives it this special colored reflection, quite unique.
This timepiece holds the thin hand-wound 1498 tourbillon caliber with constant force mechanism, also a classic and simply a beauty to look at, I could stare at it for a long long time! And just to be clear, also only 99 pieces were made.
Let’s talk about the Vianney Halter Antiqua White Gold. This perpetual calendar timepiece from 1999 is so unique and you can’t really compare it with anything else, apart from some crazy Jules Verne machine.
It was actually Vianney Halter’s first watch that he put on the market under his own name back in 1998 and he continued producing it until 2016, obviously different versions and this one comes with a 18k white gold case, yellow gold dial, blued steel hands and sapphire caseback. The self-winding caliber VH 198 is based on the Lemania 8810, but you can hardly recognize it and it holds this famous mysterious rotor developed and patented by Vianney Halter in 1999 giving it up to 35 hours of power reserve.
