Auction News Network

James Bond Barn Find: $90K ‘Thunderball’ Watch

The latest dramatic barn find involves a Breitling Top Time, the very watch Sean Connery wore in “Thunderball.” Several years ago a collector snapped it up at a yard sale for less than $40. Suspecting a higher value, the anonymous buyer took it to an expert for evaluation. The savvy collector wasn’t wrong: when the watch appears at a Christie’s auction next month in London, it’s expected to sell for as much as $90,000.

A. Lange & Sohne Sets Record In Geneva

It’s a rare vintage watch auction these days in which Patek Philippes don’t carry the day. One such sale occurred this week at Geneva, however, where Antiquorum offered a selection of classic and modern timepieces to more than 454 registered bidders from around the world. Top honors went to a limited edition A. Lange & Sohne Pour Le Merite Tourbillion wristwatch, which sold for $357,086. It was a new world auction record for the watchmaker.

King Farouk’s Clock Commands Royal Price

Egypt’s King Farouk had a ball until a military coup tossed him out of his monarchy and auctioned his massive collection of baubles including an extraordinary James Cox musical table clock, silver mounted, with its original key. That was in 1954. It came back on the market at Bonhams yesterday to sell for $578,000 after spirited bidding in London.

Christie’s Luxury Week

Closing out its 2012 season, Christie’s will offer a Luxury Week series of sales, beginning today with an event in New York devoted to jewels, led by a 50.01 carat diamond ring by Graff, (est. $7m-$10m). In tomorrow’s sale, Christie’s will auction a collection of furniture, fine and decorative art from the estate of legendary director Billy Wilder, and in coming days, there will be sales, six in all, devoted to watches, wine, and 20^th century design.

$3.6m For Eric Clapton Patek Philippe

The Patek Philippe Ref.2499 platinum wristwatch that Christie’s sold this week in Geneva had two major pluses going for it. First was rarity—only two examples of the chronometer with perpetual calendar and moon phases were produced in platinum. And the other was provenance, as famed rocker Eric Clapton was the owner. Together they produced a sale price of $3.6m, comfortably within the $2.6m-$4.2m range of its estimate.

JP Morgan’s Jewel Collection Catalog For $130,000?

Collectors are accustomed to paying for glossy catalogs but nothing like the $130,000 Christie’s estimates will be bid just for a catalog, that is prints of JP Morgan’s jewelry and objets d’art collection. At lesser prices, catalogs of his watches and miniatures collections also will be offered at the November 21 sale in London.

Rare Apple 1 Leads German Sale

Back in June, an Apple 1, one of only six known working examples of the first effort by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, sold at auction in New York for $374,500. Auction Team Breker, based in Koeln, Germany, has located another, which they will offer at a sale of Technical Antiques & Fine Toys on November 24th. The computer, estimated at $156,000-$260,000, is just one of many remarkable scientific devices at the auction, which also features a number of  iconic inventions, including the first patented copying press, the first serially produced adding machine, a 1943 Enigma coding machine, and an 1892 prototype phonograph by Swiss film maker and inventor Casimir Sivan.

Both Hands Point To Huge Sale For Eric Clapton Watch

Even without its celebrity provenance, the ultra-rare Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar wristwatch (ref.2499) that Christie’s will offer in Geneva would fetch a staggering price. It’s one of only two examples that the watchmaker produced in platinum, the other being in the factory museum. The fact that its owner is rock legend Eric Clapton, a passionate collector of timepieces, is another reason the auction house anticipates a selling price of $2.6m-$4.25m at the November 12^th auction.

New Record For Modern Wristwatch?

Minute repeating Patek Philippe wristwatches have always led the list of timepieces that Asian collectors prize, and one of them may set a record for a modern watch at a Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale early next month.  The watch is a double dialed platinum Sky Moon Tourbillon ref. 5002 produced in 2010 that offers twelve complications, including moon phases, sky chart, orbit display and sidereal time. It’s expected to sell for $1m-$1.5m at the October 8^th sale.

Chicago Mobster’s Swag Up For Auction

The swag of a mobster who collected gobs of jewels, rare coins and watches goes to an online auction next month while the one-time owner, Frank Calabrese, Sr., lives out his days in an Illinois prison, convicted of multiple murders. Included in the 250 lots of seized bling are an 8.64 carat loose diamond, and a 1927 St. Gaudens $20 gold piece.

Duke Of Windsor’s Watch Gifted To Mistress Sold

They met while sheltering in a London doorway during a bombing raid in World War I. He was Edward, the young future Kind of England, she was an older, wealthy married woman, Freda Dudley-Ward. In the course of their affair he gave her a tiny pocket watch secreted in a gold coin. It sold this week for $24,000 at a Reeman Dansie auction in London.

Patek Philippe Sells For Record $3m At Sotheby’s

Back in 1928, Patek Philippe produced a yellow gold tonneau wristwatch, with one of the earliest minute repeating movements, for a noted collector named Henry Graves. This week that timepiece, with an 1895 movement and 1927 case, sold at Sotheby’s for a record $2,994,500, making it the most expensive watch ever sold by the auction house.

Patek Philippe May Bring More Than $1m

Patek Philippe leads the field once again at Christie’s coming watch sale in New York. Nine of the top ten estimated lots at the June 13^th sale are from the celebrated Swiss watch producer, led by a rarity manufactured in 1963, an 18K gold world-time wristwatch with two crowns that’s expected to fetch $700,000-$1.2m.

Update: the Patek Philippe sold for $1m, a world record for the model, ref.2523/1, and the highest price ever achieved for a watch at Christie’s Americas. Christie’s described the anonymous buyer as an “international” collector.

Muller Watch Is REALLY Complicated

Christie’s will auction the world’s most complicated watch, a Franck Muller 2010 creation with 1,483 components, 99 jewels, and 36 functions,  (“complications”). It’s called the Aeternitas Mega 4 and has never before been offered at auction. Estimate runs from $600,000 to $1.2m. The first one sold by Muller to a Colorado man went for $2.2m. He flew all the way to Monte Carlo to pick it up.

Once Again, Patek Phillipe Scores Record Price

Antiquorum thought they might get $800,000 for a rare platinum Patek Phillipe at its auction this week in New York, but following spirited bidding an American buyer paddled down $902,500, the highest price ever paid for a single dial Patek Philippe Ref. 3974. Several other Patek Phillipes at the sale also achieved record prices.