Timekeeping of History: trend or not

Will creating watches especially for auctions become a trend?

The joint project of Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, Zenith and Kari Voutilainen to create a chronometer wristwatch based on the historic Zenith Caliber 135-O movement touches on two of the most important and interesting questions for the pre-owned watch market.

Firstly, will creating watches especially for auctions grow to the extent that it becomes a trend? Secondly, the process of decorating the model inevitably changes its appearance, distancing the resulting piece from the original, so is it right to commercialize historic watches?

The town of Le Locle where the Zenith Manufacture is located was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2009 for its 19th-century industrial architecture, and it's still being carefully restored along with numerous buildings in the surrounding area. That's why something historically valuable is still found in the factory from time to time.

It could be a batch of one of the first automatic El Primero chronographs accompanied by all the technical documentation, or a few dozen iconic manually wound Caliber 5011 movements for the first pilot's watch.

A dozen of the famous 135-О movements were uncovered three years ago. They were produced from 1949 to 1962 and made solely for orders placed by observatories and equally serious clients participating in chronometry competitions.

The observatory chronometer competitions that were organized back in those days were very popular and held on an annual basis in developed countries and international organizations.

Suffice to say, Caliber 135-O has won the prize for the most precise movement 230 times and has gone down in history as the best observatory chronometer caliber.

When the major auctioneers Aurel Bacs and Alexandre Ghotbi learned of the uncovered calibers, they decided to use eleven historic movements which had been found as the basis to create completely new wristwatches which would be sold among their clients.

Zenith took on the task of crafting the case, while a watchmaker and modern collector's favorite by the name of Kari Voutilainen worked on restoring and finishing the movements, decorating them by hand.

Voutilainen also created the dials. Ten pieces were launched online by Phillips on June 2 and snapped up for CHF 132,900 a pop. Another piece which doesn't use platinum as its case material will be sold on a later date.

It goes without saying that these were purely symbolic "auctions". Firstly, there was no bidding because the fairly high price was strictly set. Secondly, all the models had long been divvied up among those closest to the project. Even Bernard Arnault got involved in the process — Chief Executive Officer of LVMH which owns the Zenith brand.

All the auctioneers had left to do was make an official announcement confirming all the chronometers had been sold to certain individuals. It was a triumphant moment according to Aurel Bacs, although sadly it was all over in less than five minutes.

The happy new owners of these rare watches have expressed their desire to meet up from time to time. So the owners of Zenith Caliber 135 Observatoire Ref. 40.1350.135/21.C1000 may well catch up with each other one day to relive that unbelievable feeling of elation.

There are no self-confessed opportunists among the new owners but the organizers of the event haven't ruled out the possibility of these watches resurfacing at other auctions in a few years from now, where they could be sold to make a profit of at least CHF 100,000.

Kari Voutilainen was also left feeling happy with the outcome, who admitted the reason he agreed to work on the unique watch had nothing to do with royalties. "We have known each other for a long time. I didn’t do this for the money and we have enough work as it is. It’s the interaction with people I get on with that I’m passionate about," said Voutilainen.

Voutilainen went on to explain how they discussed so many tiny details and nuances in the process of creating the watch. The outstanding watchmaker went above and beyond in his work. The finishing on the hand-decorated movement looks austere at first glance, without any well-known patterns or forms of engraving. The surfaces of the mainplate and crown wheels have received circular graining and been snail brushed.

The rest of the old wheels and bridges haven’t been touched. Engraving on the back of the movement has been kept to a minimum: Zenith and Voutilainen logos, the movement's serial number, the inscription "chronometre" and the symbols "+" and "-" with five regulation markings on the balance bridge.

The dial looks slightly more lively from this perspective. It has a sober light-absorbing matte black center, a "fish-scale" motif around the periphery, a concentric circular guilloché pattern on the subsidiary seconds counter, the model name and the movement's serial number, along with applied indexes and dot markers.

The case measuring 38 mm in diameter and 10.35 mm in height is made of platinum. Overall, it turned out to be a truly exquisitely and richly decorated piece, although it has been met with a range of polarized impressions.

The loudest critics insist no one should dare touch a movement of historic value because even polishing would effectively deface it and detract from the historic value. But that's clearly an overreaction. Moreover, Voutilainen knew full well what he was doing and didn't make any changes.

The bimetallic balance was left untouched, which is made of bronze and invar (an alloy invented by Charles-Edouard Guillaume and known for its low coefficient of thermal expansion), as was the Breguet overcoil spring made of blued steel.

Voutilainen even decided against incorporating a shock-protection system, which would require modifying the construction of the bridge and balance mechanism. Nevertheless, the experts aren't worried for no reason.

At Baselworld in 2008, Swatch Group's flagship watch brand Breguet unveiled a new “Marie-Antoinette” number 1160: a minute repeater and perpetual calendar with equation of time based on the 160 commissioned by the Queen of France.

Truth be told, Marie Antoinette didn't live to see the day when the piece was completed 34 years after her death in 1827. The 160 was stolen from Jerusalem's Museum of Islamic Art in 1983. Later in 2004, Swatch Group CEO Nicolas G. Hayek challenged Breguet’s watchmakers to make an exact replica of the piece based on archival research and original drawings.

What experts couldn't get their heads around and even began expressing during the presentation was that the replica was far from the original "Marie-Antoinette" pocket watch. Nicolas G. Hayek's response was that the new one was much better than the original!

The watch ended up being housed at the Breguet Museum but the arguments about whether it can be considered a copy have yet to die down. This could be considered an extreme example and one that could be avoided going forward by taking Voutilainen's approach. After all, what if Zenith suddenly unearths something else?

And what's stopping these kinds of projects from growing to become a trend? The idea has a lot of potential in and of itself. The excitement this project has generated in the world of watchmaking is comparable to the effect produced by years of annual budgets allocated by the major watch manufacturer to the PR department and marketing.

However, it doesn't look likely that these types of projects will become commonplace. There could of course be isolated events, but not that often. That’s the view taken by both the auctioneers Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo and Zenith CEO Julien Tornare, who says, "you can't do too much or you kill the magic".