A Collector’s Dream: Rare Time Pieces in the Luxury Market!
November 9, 2011
An exceptional, and highly-unusual, heart-shaped gilt, pearl and glass-set belt-buckle watch, circa 1770. Estimate: HK$400,000 - 600,000 /US$50,000 - 75,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2011.
HONG KONG.- Christie’s Hong Kong sale of Important Watches of 30 November will offer over 550 rare timepieces valued in excess of HK$85 million/US$11 million. This vast selection features the world’s leading makers, with haute horology examples showcasing the best of fine watch making over the last four centuries. In addition to a wonderful selection of vintage and modern complicated wristwatches from the 1940’s through the present day, the sale features stunning high end time-pieces, as well as a striking collection of beautifully decorated Chinese market enamels and complicated pocket watches
Important and Never-Before-Seen Timepiece for the Chinese Market
From the 16th century, Chinese emperors and their courtiers developed an insatiable appetite for clocks, watches and mechanical curiosities made in Europe. Pocket watches were considered valuable commodities and status symbols, luxury objects that came from the West. Entrepreneurial watchmakers from the West, or “Sing Song Merchants” as they were called, looked upon China as the new market and created designs and mechanisms especially for the Chinese market. These timepieces often came in fanciful shapes and combined complications with extreme miniaturization with the creative artistry of master goldsmiths and artisans. Today more than one thousand examples of such rarities still exist at the Beijing Palace Museum located in the Forbidden City!
