As we note elsewhere in this issue, extremely technical models and particularly those increased with ever more sophisticated tourbillons and ever more efficient perpetual calendars continue to fascinate both the brands and collectors. This enthusiasm for these two mechanical functions is also confirmed on the auction market. Antiquorum watch expert Etienne Leménager is expecting a record for the star lot in Geneva’s November sale, a 1932 Vacheron Constantin pocket-watch commissioned by Henry Graves Jr. This one-of-a-kind yellow gold model (66 mm in diameter) is distinguished by a set of ten complications: equipped with a tourbillon and a split-second chronograph, it also displays the power reserve, lunar calendar and moon phases, as well as a perpetual calendar. One can imagine how much force needs to be generated in order to operate all these functions without any loss of precision! Henry Graves had indeed established as a prerequisite condition for his purchase of the watch that it should be submitted to the Geneva Observatory for a test of its quality as a chronograph. Vacheron Constantin achieved spectacular success with a First Prize awarded by the Observatory. While this watch is estimated at around two million Swiss francs, Etienne Leménager is anticipating a far higher final bid because there is no known similar model to date.

The October Geneva sale comprised two Patek Philippe yellow gold tourbillon watches, both of which won first prize in the Geneva Observatory tests: the smaller of the two in 1938 in the small chronometers category, while (true) the larger in 1929 was ranked overall first among all categories, with a total of 849 points out of 1000. This model is even rarer in that it was auctioned complete with its certificate of origin.

In the same November sale in Geneva, one should also mention a wristwatch with quarter repeater made by Vacheron Constantin in 1913, accompanied by its certificate of origin. Another perpetual calendar gem in this collector’s rendezvous on the banks of Lake Geneva is an 1875 Audemars Piguet pocket-watch endowed with 11 complications, including a chiming mechanism with grand and small strike. Finally, the world’s leading horological auctioneer could not conceive a “non-theme” sale without a few extremely rare Patek Philippe watches, in this case a virtually 1943 steel chronograph and a digital minute repeater perpetual calendar.

In the field of rare watches equipped with tourbillons and perpetual calendars, Antiquorum will be auctioning in Hong Kong three pocket-watches from the 1980s: an Audemars Piguet with minute repeater, perpetual calendar and split-second chronograph, a Girard-Perregaux with tourbillon under three gold bridges, and a selfwinding Breguet watch with power-reserve display in a set with a wristwatch, dated 1993.

Which contemporary models equipped with tourbillons or perpetual calendars will reach peak prices a auction in 2030? Without claiming to provide a categorical answer, we are providing some useful hints in the following pages by presenting recent models distinguished by their design, their originality and/or their supposed quality: the first double page is devoted to perpetual calendars, and the three following ones to tourbillons.