Auctions
Highlights from the Phillips Game Changers New York Auction
There’s no doubt that themed auction are somewhat a thing for the Phillips Watch Department. If you rewind to Phillips’ first watch sale in partnership with Bacs & Russo in 2014, you’ll remember it was also a themed sale focused on the Rolex Day-Date.
It doesn’t always end up that way, but in the course of assembling Phillips’ third New York watch auction, Paul Boutros, Head of Watches in America, quickly realised they had a powerful theme running. At that time, Boutros had three incredible watches in his hand (not literally): the Rolex GMT-Master worn by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, and two more watches that were found from the estate sale of Senator John H. Glenn Jr, who was also the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
From that moment, he knew Game Changers had to be the theme. All the 75 lots in the upcoming New York sale are watches owned by extraordinary people who were “game changers” in their fields, as well as watches that are so special that they changed the course of watchmaking. Let’s take a closer look.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Lucky 13 (Lot 13)
The Jaeger-LeCoultre was found in his estate sale, and now consigned by the purchasers to Phillips. The most unusual fact about it is of course, that all the hour markers read 13. The dial is similar to the LeCoultre 24-hour dial watch that was given to all the astronauts on Project Mercury, manufactured in the United States by LeCoultre.
It’s very rare that a backstory of this sort comes to light, and in a Congressional Record too. For this reason, Phillips also chose to honour the piece by making it Lot 13 in the auction.
Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute (Lot 14)
The Breitling Navitimer was not only beloved by aviators, it was beloved by astronauts too. American astronaut Commander Malcolm Scott Carpenter was one of the first seven US astronauts known as the Mercury Seven who went into space. In charge of navigation equipment and already a fan of Breitling, Carpenter got in touch with the company to produce a Navitimer with a few alterations to make it suitable for space flight.
The watch, released in the early 1960s, was later dubbed the Cosmonaute. It bears the name “Navitimer” on the dial with the special reference 809 as well as the AOPA wings instead of the Breitling logo. This variation of the Cosmonaute was only in production for a few months in 1962, and features an all black dial sans the white subdials in the later versions, and is also fitted with syringe-style luminous hands.
The Jack Nicklaus Rolex Day-Date (Lot 18)
But now, he has decided to part with it in order to raise money for his charitable organisation, the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation. Phillips too, has announced that 100 per cent of the present lot’s proceeds will go to the organisation.
Rolex The Marlon Brando “Apocalypse Now” GMT-Master (Lot 30)
The watch carries great emotional significance for its owners. Petra Brando Fischer was Marlon Brando’s adoptive daughter, and the watch was gifted to her following her graduation from Brown University in 1994. It is accompanied with a letter he wrote, which called the watch a tank. “You can do anything you want to it and it will keep on going. I want you to have it as a reminder of how proud I am of you,” he wrote.
The Rolex GMT-Master ref. 1675 is offered as it was received by Petra, without a bezel; and fitted on a rubber strap. The watch not only has impeccable provenance, it is also exceptionally well-preserved, retaining all of its bevels and curves, and the luminous hour markers and hands have aged to a beautiful golden colour.
Some proceeds of the watch sale will go back to the Brando Fischer Foundation, established by Petra and her husband Russell to benefit children living through hardship due to abuse, neglect, poverty or disability. Causes, Petra believes, would have been very important to her father.
Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 “Pink on Pink” (Lot 64)
The Ref. 1518 is not only important in the history of watchmaking, it is also extremely rare. There are only 281 examples of the watch known, with the majority of them in yellow gold, extremely limited in pink gold, and rarer still in steel — there are only four known models.
Before this lot appeared, there were only 12 known watches with the mythical “pink on pink” combination. The surfacing of this 13th timepiece, and in such well-preserved condition too, makes this a very worthy entry in the Game Changers sale.
Vacheron Constantin Overseas Dual Time Prototype (Lot 72)
When American explorer and mountaineer Cory Richards decided to climb Mount Everest for the third time in 2019, via the treacherous North-East Ridge from the Tibetan side, he partnered with Vacheron Constantin to create his perfect watch.
Richards needed a timepiece that could track the time on Everest as well as home time in United States. It also needed to be able to withstand the brutal elements.
The prototype watch is sold to benefit the National Geographic Society, which is a non-profit organisation close to Richards’ heart.
Urwerk UR-105 RDJ “Avengers: Endgame” (Lot 75)
Downey Jr. has long had a penchant for independent watchmaking, having previously reached out to Urwerk for the UR-110 he wore in Spider-Man: Homecoming. For Endgame, Downey Jr. wore the UR-105. The watch, created by Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, really needs no more introduction; we’ve written about it several times and have even produced a special Revolution version in the past.
Proceeds from the sale will be donated to Random Act Funding, a charitable organisation founded by Susan and Robert Downey Jr. Fittingly, the Endgame watch forms the last lot of this exciting sale.