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N ot only does provenance—the documented history of a piece and its ownership—help collectors identify the journey traveled by a watch before it is presented to market, it also lends a certain lore. Particularly good stories add significance, notability, and, ultimately, value, to the pieces that capture our collective attention. Great examples include a Rolex Daytona given to Paul Newman by his wife, Joanne Woodward, with the inscription “DRIVE VERY SLOWLY” or the Patek Phillippe Henry Graves Jr Super Complication created for the banker and passed down as an heirloom before eventually selling for 23,237,000 CHF in 2014.
Our upcoming sale of Important Watches in Geneva includes several timepieces with exceptional provenance, but we’ve chosen two of our favorite stories to highlight here, examples that speak to the romance and excitement of luxury watch collecting.
Once upon a time, there was a modern couple who shared everything: love, cars, even a passion for superb watches. Luckily for them, Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak launched on 15 April 1972 as the world’s first stainless steel luxury sports watch. Designed by Gerald Genta, it sported a fully integrated bracelet and a complex, ultra-thin selfwinding Calibre 2121. For this particular European couple, the Royal Oak represented an opportunity to declare their love and mutual admiration, and a perfect opportunity to match.
This Royal Oak reference 5402 was purchased in May of 1972 and bears the number A4, identifying it as the fourth Royal Oak ever made—in fact, it was this very watch that was presented to the world at the Basel Watch Fair in 1972 when Audemars Piguet first introduced the Royal Oak. It was an incredibly special and prescient gift for a man who loved watches. The back of the case is engraved “with much love Dominique” and includes the date of the couple’s 20th wedding anniversary, which they celebrated the year before.
The second Royal Oak—this time a reference 8638—was designed by Jacqueline Dimier (one of the first female designers in the watch industry). This ladies style is quite similar to the original, retaining the defining elements of Genta’s design. The main points of departure are the diameter, which is much smaller at 29mm (compared to the original 39mm), and a white-gold “AP” monogram at 12 o’clock. Otherwise, the watches are a pair.
This reference 8638 was purchased five years later after he received the Royal Oak from his wife, in honor of their 25th anniversary. The caseback is engraved with the names of their three children. Though they are being auctioned separately, they will always share a connection—a romantic testament to love, affection and family.
The Rolex Explorer II was built to withstand extreme environments—high humidity, intense heat and freezing temperatures—making it the ideal companion for, you guessed it, explorers.
Few environments are more extreme than Mount Everest. And few explorers are more extremely iconic than Reinhold Messner, the first man to complete a solo ascension of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habbler, the first to ascend without the use of supplemental oxygen. For the meticulous planning that went into these ascents, he turned to longtime expedition logistician Prithivi Raj Chettri, known as Bobby,
Bobby coordinated more than 60 major Himalayan expeditions, including that now famous Everest Expedition that saw Messner and Habelar ascend without supplemental oxygen. Bobby and Messner worked together over many years, developing a close friendship marked by incredible ambition and success.
To commemorate this friendship, Messner gave Bobby one of his personal watches, a Rolex Explorer II dating from 1979.
The timepiece comes to auction now alongside a letter from Messner to Bobby’s son, photographs of the pair and Messner’s own ice axe—pieces that not only reinforce the provenance but add historical and collector interest. If the next owner has even a fraction of Messner and Bobby’s sense of adventure, this watch may witness even greater feats to come.
