Neo-Vintage Watches From the ’80s and ’90s Are Finally Getting Their Own Auction
This November, Phillips will hammer incredible watches from the 1980s and 1990s in their thematic auction Reloaded: The Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking. These two decades were decisive for the Swiss watch industry broadly, but also for independent watchmakers and watch collecting itself (especially in Italy). Today, watches of the ’80s and ’90s are fast becoming significant for serious watch collectors, for fashion, and even for the design of current timepieces.
In the 1980s, a feisty Jean-Claud Biver revived Blancpain and ran an ad campaign bragging that the company had never made a quartz watch, and that it never would. This brash statement sums up the moment when—after the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s had killed of an estimated 500 Swiss mechanical watch-related companies—mechanical watchmaking became an art form, one practiced for its own sake. With one narrowed eye keenly trained on the past and one strangely dilated eye dazzled by the opulent, avant-garde spirit of the moment, mechanical watchmaking suddenly became decidedly postmodern. We’ve been documenting the rising value (and stature) of these neo-vintage watches, which are roughly 20 to 40 years old. These are, today, very significant decades for watch collectors to understand.
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In a nutshell, the ’80s and ’90s truly did see the “Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking,” as Phillips succinctly put it when naming the auction set for November 8 in Geneva. Of the upcoming auction, Phillips execs Alexandre Ghotbi and Tiffany To jointly comment that, “The 1980s-1990s was one of the most creative periods for watchmaking with the rise of independent watchmakers, the birth of multi-complication wristwatches and the desire to create movements that had never been seen before. The watch industry reinvented itself, laying the foundations for the luxury, precision, and craftsmanship we see today. Without the pioneering spirit of the time there would be no watch making as we know it today.”
Daytona “Rainbow” ref. 16599 in white gold that was produced as a one-off decades ahead of the regular-production Rolex Daytona references 116595RBOW and 116598RBOW of 2012. From F. P. Journe the auction will offer a first-series Tourbillon Souverain à Remontoir d’Egalité, and from Philippe Dufour the 10th Duality ever produced.
Below are the hottest highlights from this exciting auction.
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The First-Ever Rolex Rainbow Daytona Ref. 16599
We’ve seen many, many Rolex Daytona Rainbows since they went into production in 2012, and especially since John Mayer pretty much singlehandedly made them popular. But nearly 20 years prior, a one-off piece was made for a special client, and it is finally leaving that collection and headed to auction. With its pavé diamond dial with blue sapphires as hour markers and its degradé-hued bezel that has since come to be known as the Rainbow, this watch in white gold is expected to fetch over $3 million.
F. P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain à Remontoir d’Egalité 15/93
F. P. Journe’s first watch, which was produced in a subscription of just 20 pieces in 1999, is the epitome of the early independent watchmaking renaissance. Journe’s timepieces have shot up in value many fold in the past ten years, and his earliest pieces have fetched well above seven figures at auction. This Tourbillon Souverain à Remontoir d’Egalité 15/93 is strangely industrial—almost steampunk—with its top-mounted components, but the basic design arcitecture of Joune’s more recent work is all there. If we were to guess, this one will quickly shoot over $1 million in early bidding rounds.
Philippe Dufour Duality #10
Philippe Dufour’s Duality has skyrocketed in value, but no example sold so far is quite as rare as this platinum version with a gray dial and rose gold hands and indicies. The movement is uniquely without inscriptions (suggesting a prototype, perhaps), and given that only nine of these were thought to exist, this #10 stands as not just rare, but as a challenge to current scholarship. To combat any doubters, this watch confirms itself with a Certificate of Origin. Seven figures seems likely here, as well.
Oval Pocket Watch by Derek Pratt for Urban Jürgensen
It would be easy to dismiss a pocket watch as not “of the moment,” but the postmodernism that informed this era of watchmaking includes that keen eye on the past. Known as pastiche among art historians and critics, artforms that imitate earlier periods break with linear time and are, therefore, inherently postmodern (this because modernism, by definition, was always headed toward the future). Add in the oval shape, classical-yet-bizarre dial layout (moonphase at the top!)—not to mention the pedigree of Pratt’s watchmaking—and it’s clear that this watch is definitively avant-garde. With a tourbillon, detente escapement, and a remontoir to regulate power delivery (all mechanical anachronisms), this watch was crafted under the guidance of Kari Voutilainen for Urban Jürgensen and has previously ticked away its years in the esteemed collection of Dr. Helmut Crott. Keen bidders will recognize the elusive value of this watch, and we will watch this lot with piqued curiosity.
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