Antiquroum has unfailing accompanied GMT since its very first issue in April 2000: each edition features a special report jointly created for collectors, who receive the magazine at the same time as the auction catalogue. It is thus with enthusiasm and pride that we are taking part in this magnificent thirtieth birthday, celebrated in due style throughout the year through milestone auctions from New York to Hong Kong, as well as in Geneva on April 24th and 25th.

Three auctions in one
The April auction is distinguished by an interesting variety encompassing three collections. Having attracted great interest in New York last year where a hundred or so watches had been sold, the Peter Lin collection has retained its fifty finest models for the 30th birthday auction in Geneva. In particular, one might mention one of the extremely rare enamelled models by Vacheron Constantin: “Tropical Landscape”, a 1947 rose gold watch with cloisonné enamel dial The second wristwatch collection, that of Carlo Rivetti, includes an impressive series of Rolex watches, including one of the 15 large-size split-seconds chronographs (see caption). Finally, the third focus of this Geneva auction is a collection of 300 pocket-watches ranging from the 16th to 20th century, part of which will be kept for the following auction in Hong Kong. As far as pocket-watches are concerned, the most impressive models are to be found among the numerous chronographs on offer. Nothing could be more conducive to writing this thirtieth page in the company history.

Flashback on the chronograph
As an industry measuring the time elapsed since a given event, the chronograph was invented, patented (and thus named) in 1821 by Rieussec, official watchmaker to the king who planned to use it for horse races. Swiss watchmaker Adolphe Nicole subsequently introduced the first reset-to-zero mechanism in 1844 and integrated it within a watch in 1862. Another interesting development was the possibility of measuring two simultaneous events or a split time, which we owe to Frenchman Joseph Thaddeus Winnerl, who invented the split-seconds hand in 1870. In its wristwatch version, one of the first split-seconds chronographs was created in 1922 by Patek Philippe (and sold by Antiquorum in 1999 for 3 million Swiss francs!). In the 1930s, brands such as Rolex presented wrist chronographs with various graduated scales on the dial, intended for fields as varied as medicine, aviation or sports. The telemetric scale thus enables one to measure distances (for events that are both audible and visible, such as storms); the tachometric scale helps to calculate speeds; while the pulsometer facilitates measuring the number of heartbeats per minute. There were even some industrial applications, with scales designed to measure series production. Today, sports chronographs are clearly extremely popular, and a contemporary selection is presented in the following pages. Who knows: maybe they are destined to hit the jackpot for your children or grandchildren at a future auction?!