The watch world’s November rites begin next weekend, and Geneva’s three big rooms have each produced a reason to pay attention. The most historically loaded of them is at Sotheby’s, where the first Patek Philippe reference 3970 ever made has resurfaced. Movement number 875’000 — the inaugural Lemania-based CH 27-70 Q, the calibre that ended the thirty-year reign of the ref. 2499 and powered Patek’s perpetual calendar chronographs for the next quarter-century — was sold on 14 January 1987 at the brand’s own salon on the Rue du Rhône, and comes with its original box and certificate to prove it. Had it been made a touch later, Patek might have kept it for its museum, as it did with the first 3971. Instead it carries an estimate of CHF 1–3 million in the Important Watches sale on 8–9 November, previewing at the Mandarin Oriental from the 5th.
The same catalogue offers a George Daniels Millennium in yellow gold (CHF 300,000–600,000) and that unicorn of modern collecting, a steel Lange 1 (CHF 150,000–300,000). Phillips answers on 7–8 November at the Hôtel Président with The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV — 220 lots whose preview tour pointedly stopped in Riyadh alongside New York, Hong Kong and London. Its star is a 1945 steel Patek ref. 1436 split-seconds chronograph, one of only two known with original case and dial, at CHF 2–4 million, backed by a 14k gold “John Player Special” Daytona (CHF 800,000–1.6 million) and a pair of F.P. Journe Résonances led by the platinum “Régence” at CHF 1–2 million.
Christie’s closes the week on 9 November at the Four Seasons des Bergues with Rare Watches and a human twist: some twenty donated lots benefit ELA International, among them the Cartier Pasha that Zinedine Zidane bought with his first salary as a young player at Bordeaux — the first watch he ever bought himself, worn for nearly thirty-five years. Between the first 3970, two-million-franc steel and a footballer’s keepsake, Geneva has assembled a week about provenance in all its forms. The results will tell us what the market believes history is worth this season.
