Watches and Wonders 2024 marks the most exciting year in the watch design business since 1972, when Audemars Piguet launched the Gerald Genta-designed Royal Oak, a born classic with a pervasive influence. In other words, watches are fashionable again and horology is having something of a Schiaparelli moment, as interest surges in surreal, ornate and, frankly, psychedelic watch design.
Sotheby’s Rough Diamonds vintage watch sale, Geneva
Sotheby’s Geneva is underlining the current curiosity in all things horological with ‘Rough Diamonds’, an ‘underground’ auction of weird and wonderful vintage watches spanning the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, in collaboration with secretive watch collective Heist-Out. The vintage watches have been ‘carefully extracted from horological history’ by specialists and the Heist-Out team. Indeed, there are some lesser-known insider design greats represented here: Charles de Temple, Gilbert Albert, Jacqueline Dimier and Daryoush Shafa, among others.
'In an industry where each new release often melds into the next, it is invigorating to pay homage to the trailblazers of yesteryear and affirm that audacity has always been pivotal in shaping watch design,' say Maxime Couturier and Lorenzo Maillard, co-founders of Heist-Out, of their curatorial approach.
Men in particular appear to be broadening their tastes beyond the ubiquitous heavy gold, sports timepiece to avant-gard vintage and jewelled ones, such as those sported by ASAP Rocky and Timothée Chalamet. Josh Pullan, global head of Sotheby’s Luxury Division, agrees: ‘Collectors are increasingly seeking out uniquely expressive pieces, and our Rough Diamond vintage-watch auction concept is set to capture the imagination of watch aficionados and budding collectors alike.’
While it has a subversive touch, is the Rough Diamonds title something of a misnomer? I'd say that gold is the unifying precious material in this showstopping curation of 24 jewelled vintage timepieces. Unless you’ve seen them, however, it would be hard to explain the sheer inventiveness of the thinking behind them.
You might see them, as I do, in terms of the musical influences that abounded in the years they were launched: 1960s John Coltrane (Patek Philippe), 1980s New Order (Boucheron), 1975 Pink Floyd (Piaget), and 1985 Audemars Piguet (The Jesus and Mary Chain). Have a look and make up your own mind about the creative origin of these jewelled delights, because they are so brilliantly outré, you’ll want to keep looking and looking...
The Sotheby's Rough Diamonds sale starts tonight at 6pm (CEST), with starting prices ranging from a reasonable CHF2,000 to a suitably baroque CHF100,000.
