The Highly anticipated charity auction is back for its 7th edition.
The Highly anticipated charity auction is back for its 7th edition.
It’s been 12 years since Luc Pettavino conceived the Only Watch auction, and the industry’s top watchmakers are still faithfully donating one-off editions to raise money for the Monaco Association Against Muscular Dystrophy (AMM).
Their efforts have raised over 25 million euros (S$40 million) for numerous scientific and medical research programmes.
There will be 49 lots to be auctioned off this year – not all of them wristwatches – with the entire collection estimated to be worth US$3.9 million (S$5.3 million). And while a fair few of them will simply be re-coloured editions of existing models, there are a handful of watchmakers that have gone the extra mile.
Indie favourite F.P. Journe, for instance, has come up with an entirely new watch: a monopusher split-seconds chronograph in a 44mm tantalum case with a blue dial. The movement is made of rose gold, and every lever and spring is mirror-polished.
It also has a power reserve of a whopping 80 hours, even with the chronograph running.
Others have taken to curious collaborations, such as Hublot and sprinter Usain Bolt, Armin Strom and artist Hunt Slonem, and, perhaps most interesting of all, independent watchmakers Laurent Ferrier and Urwerk.
The collection will be on a promotional world tour leading up to the final auction by Christie’s at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva on Nov 11. If you want to have a preview, it will be swinging by Singapore on Oct 5 and 6 at Malmaison by The Hour Glass.
