Rare Dufour chime clock sells for $2 million at auction

A unique chiming wristwatch made by independent Swiss producer Philippe Dufour will go to public auction for the first time in December and is expected to fetch at least $2 million in a sale that will test the market for rare and expensive watches.

The Philippe Dufour Grande et Petite Sonnerie features a transparent sapphire crystal dial and a white gold case with a hinged caseback. It is one of eight wristwatches with the unusual chiming complication manufactured by the watchmaker, and one of three with an open dial displaying the chiming mechanism.

“It's one of the most significant versions, if not the most significant, of any wristwatch I've ever created,” Paul Boutros, Phillips' vice president and head of watches for the Americas, said in an interview.

The auction house says it expects the watch to sell “for more than $2 million,” the highest estimate Phillips has ever placed on a watch for a New York sale. An enameled dial version, previously owned by the Sultan of Brunei, was sold by watch dealer and auctioneer A Collected Man for $7.6 million in 2021, the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch made by a producer. independent.

Demand for rare and expensive watches has weakened since soaring to record levels in 2021 and 2022. Boutros said the number of registered bidders for Phillips watch auctions has doubled since before the pandemic, even as speculators who jumped into the market trying to make quick profits at the height of the boom have largely disappeared.

“We still see insatiable demand from seasoned collectors seeking the best and this watch is among the best ever created,” he said.

Considered the pinnacle of horological complications, the grande and petite chime had only been used in larger pocket watches until 1992, when Dufour became the first to produce a wristwatch version. It took him two and a half years to complete the clock.

The complication features a minute repeater that can strike the time on command, as well as two “strike” modes that, when enabled, passively strike the time as it passes using small hammers on the movement, much like a small grandfather clock

Before starting his own business, Dufour made pocket watch versions of the large and small chime for Audemars Piguet. Since producing the wristwatch version, other Swiss brands, including Patek Philippe SA, have also made wristwatches with large and small chiming complications.

Born in 1948, in Switzerland's Vallée de Joux, Dufour has made only about 250 watches in his workshop in the region.