Antiquorum Opens 30th Year with $4.4 Million Auction
By William George Shuster, Senior Editor -- JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 6/1/2004
Antiquorum opened its 30th year with a March 24 auction of important collector's wristwatches, pocket watches, and clocks that brought in $4,441,196. The sale was held in New York City at the Grand Havana Room. A number of timepieces went for double and even triple their presale estimates. The live Web broadcast on www.antiquorum.com was followed by more than 4,500 collectors.
Top prices were fetched by Breguet, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and Cartier pieces. The sale's star—a rare 18k yellow gold Cartier minute-repeating Art Deco wristwatch from the 1920s—sold for $640,500.
Other top sellers included a rare Patek Philippe minute-repeating platinum wristwatch with one-minute tourbillon regulator, circa 2000 ($321,500); a unique 1930s Vacheron Constantin "La Caravelle" platinum bras-en-l'air dress watch with diamond-set dial ($211,500); a 1940s Patek Philippe 18k yellow gentleman's wristwatch with perpetual calendar, moon phases, square button chronograph, register, and tachometer ($211,500); a rare Breguet 18k pink gold Grand Complication Tourbillon with a visible one-minute tourbillon regulator and large, half-hunter case ($101,500); a very rare 18k yellow Rolex Oyster Perpetual officially certified chronometer wristwatch, tonneau-shaped, astronomic, self-winding, with triple date and moon phases ($90,500); and a Breguet 18k yellow Tourbillon Chronographe, produced in 1997 to commemorate the 250th birthday of Abraham Louis Breguet, with visible one-minute tourbillon regulator, round button chronograph, and registers ($82,250).
