Christie’s is one of the most well known and established auction houses in the world, having been founded in 1766. Their upcoming sale features some stunning lots. Of especial interest, to me, is the Rolex Afternoon, which will be a monothematic sale of some very important Rolex watches.
I had a brief catch up recently with Eric Wind, Vice President and Senior Specialist of the Watches department and he was really upbeat about both sessions of the sale. He told me, “We are very excited about the upcoming auction and the diversity of pieces in our catalogue.
“In our Rolex-only afternoon session, we have everything from amazing early Rolex chronographs, such as the 3525 in steel with salmon dial to rare modern Daytonas. For our morning session, we have a wide array of accessible vintage chronographs, exceptional pocket watches, and a few outstanding Heuer and Universal chronographs”. Personally speaking, I can’t wait!
Mr. and Mrs. Rindt — A Chrono Pair (Lots 28 & 29)
I thought I’d start by looking at a pair of watches, each linked to one half of 1960s power couple Jochen and Nina Rindt. Jochen Rindt was a racing driver (tragically killed in 1970), who married Nina Lincoln in 1967. Both of the Rindts wore chronograph wristwatches; Jochen a Heuer Autavia and Nina a Universal Compax. In the same manner that the exotic dial Rolex Daytona was nicknamed the Paul Newman, due to the film star’s wearing of said watch, so too have collectors named particular variants of Heuer and Universal chronos after the Rindts.
Lot 28 is a 1966 Universal Geneve Compax chrono, reference 885103/01 in very beautiful condition. The original red stopwatch hand is still present and the watch features a rare bezel variant. The regular, so-called, ‘Nina Rindt’ model features a white dial, with black sub-dials. This inverse version of the dial, with large applied U on the dial, has been referred to as the ‘Evil Nina’. Evil or not, it’s a great watch.
Lot 29 is a Heuer Autavia reference 2446 dating to 1965. Jochen Rindt was often seen wearing this model, which led to its now famous nickname. Like lot 28, it has an inverse panda dial and a bi-directional 12-hour bezel. The watch is in stunning condition and the lume in the hour and minute hands has taken on a nice patina that matches the lume dots at the end of the applied hour markers. A really cool vintage chrono!