One and Only
Millions were raised and records were shattered when 50 unique watches went under the hammer at Christie’s in Geneva – and all in the name of charity
The unique timepieces that brought in millions for charity at Only Watch 2019
Held every other year since it was founded in 2005, the Only Watch auction brings together key members of the global horological community behind a single noble aim: to raise money – and lots of it – to combat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a devastating neuromuscular disease that mostly affects boys. The sale owes its genesis to the vision and energy of its founder and organiser, Luc Pettavino, whose own son Paul had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy; tragically Paul died some three years ago at the age of 21, but his father’s commitment – Pettavino now serves as the president of the Monégasque Association Against Myopathies – remains as firm and as focused as it ever was.
A marketing wizard, Pettavino was already well known as the organiser of the Monaco Yacht Show when he began raising funds for research against the disease; indeed, it was only natural that he’d leverage many of the contacts he’d made in the yachting world. And when he hit on the notion of a charity auction, not unsurprisingly that soon led to the world of luxury watches, where collectors are happy to spend millions on unique pieces and, it serendipitously turned out, watchmakers were equally willing to create them – for free!
Held in Geneva on November 9, Only Watch 2019 was the eighth auction in a series that, by 2017, had already raised € 35 million – a remarkable 99 percent of which has directly gone to research against the disease. Under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco and with the support once again of Christie’s auction house, the 2019 auction featured 50 one- of- a- kind watches created by 50 of some of the nd most famous names in the business, from Audemars Piguet to Zenith, and with a panoply of brands both great and small in between. With estimates ranging from the relatively modest – a unique Tudor Black Bay Ceramic One, for example, was valued at US$ 4,500$ 5,500 – to the $ 2.5 million that the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime was expected to realise, there was something for everyone – or at least that was the theory. The reality was very different, however, with the record- breaking sum in excess of $ 31 million raised by the Patek making it the most expensive watch ever sold at auction – and even the Tudor made a staggering $ 352,756. We’d love to show you every piece at this year’s auction, but that would require an entire book. Instead, we hope this small selection not only shows how the watch industry stepped up to the plate for this year’s sale, but also whets your appetite for the ninth Only Watch when that rolls around again in 2021.