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Only Watch 2023 Favorites: Bulgari

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

In this post we highlight Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Only Watch (above), a unique version of its groundbreaking ultra-thin tourbillon watch created using Italian green marble and given 110 facets.

The green marble, named Verde di Alpi, comes from the Aosta Valley, the natural passage linking Switzerland and Italy through the Alps. Green is offset with white veins, which Bulgari symbolizes as serpentines of alpine forests and snowy peaks.

The watch’s 40mm black DLC titanium polished case and bracelet is covered with the green marble in a layer of 0.4mm – 0.5mm.

The dial also features a thin marble wafer (0.6-mm). Similarly, Bulgari set the bracelet’s front and side links with a sliver of marble, leaving only the interior surface in black DLC titanium. Inside is Bulgari’s ultra-thin BVL 268 hand-wound manufacture ultra-thin mechanical movement with flying tourbillon. The full case measures only 1.95 mm thick.

Bulgari notes that the purchaser of the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Only Watch will be offered one night in Bulgari’s newest hotel in Roma as well as lunch or dinner with one person from Bulgari Horlogerie Top management and the visit of the Villa Albani Torlonia to see a collection of marble sculptures.

Estimate: CHF 150,000 – CHF 250,000.

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Only Watch 2023 Favorites: Chopard

 

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

In this post we highlight the entry from Chopard, The L.U.C 1860 Only Watch Edition featuring an ice green-toned solid white gold guilloché dial. The watch is essentially a reissue of the very first L.U.C timepiece from 1997, the L.U.C 1860.

The watch’s 36.5mm case is made of Chopard’s own Lucent Steel while the movement inside is Chopard’s superb chronometer-certified L.U.C Caliber 96.40-L. The movement is wound by a gold micro-rotor and equipped with the two barrels that contribute to its strong 65-hour power reserve.

Chopard explains that it chose the dial color here to “evoke the beauty of green icebergs, which are found exclusively in the Antarctic. Icebergs are the real celebrities of polar regions and are mostly white or blue in color. However, like an artist, Nature is capable of producing splendid green icebergs that scientists sometimes call “jade bergs”. This color simultaneously symbolizes the melting of glaciers, thus illustrating major environmental challenges and endowing this creation with distinctive symbolic value.”

The The L.U.C 1860 Only Watch Edition has also earned the Geneva Seal, a rare feat for a steel-cased watch. The Seal, or Poinçon de Genève, guarantees the quality and smooth functioning of watches assembled in Geneva.

Estimate: CHF  25,000 – CHF 35,000.

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Only Watch 2023 Favorites: TAG Heuer 

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

In this post we highlight TAG Heuer, which is debuting a unique TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph (above), debuting a brand-new movement. 

TAG Heuer uses a special variation of titanium referred to as Texturized Titanium to create a crystalized effect throughout the case. Constructed using four pieces of sapphire as well, the case allows provides a spectacular dynamic effect as the material catches the light.

TAG Heuer’s Movements Director Carole Kasapi and her team created the new movement inside. The caliber TH81-00 is a mechanical split-seconds chronograph movement, developed in collaboration with Vaucher, the movement is made of titanium and is the lightest automatic chronograph movement ever crafted by TAG Heuer.

The watchmaker worked with Artime artisans to apply a graté damier finish to key parts of the movement, complimented by black polishing, anglage, perlage, and brushed finishing.

The total finishing time exceeded twelve hours. The TAG Heuer shield is applied to the rotor and is adorned with the official colors of Only Watch for 2023, hand painted by André Martinez.

 

Estimate: CHF 150,000 – CHF 300,000.

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Only Watch 2023 Favorites: Frederique Constant 

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

In this post we highlight the Tourbillon Planétarium Only Watch 2023 from Frederique Constant, which has teamed with independent watchmaker extraordinaire Christiaan van der Klaauw. His planetarium watch, the smallest in the world and the only one produced in recent history for a wristwatch (the Ulysse Nardin Planetarium from 1990 was the first) and is melded with an in-house Frederique Constant tourbillon. Both appear within a glittering aventurine dial. 

The hand-finished piece is housed in a 42mm platinum case.

The watch boasts several premieres. It’s the first Frederique Constant Manufacture Tourbillon to share a watch with a planetarium and also the first Christiaan van der Klaauw piece of this type to feature a tourbillon. It’s also the first time that a Manufacture Frederique Constant timepiece has had an aventurine dial or a 42mm platinum case. It’s also the first time that a Frederique Constant watch has included a combined month and date display using hands on a single counter.

The watch’s heliocentric system brings together six moving discs in the same plane, each with its own planet completing its orbit around the sun in real time: Mercury (88 days), Venus (225 days), Earth (365 days), Mars (687 days), Jupiter (12 years) and Saturn (29 years). The wearer will have to wait almost thirty years to see Saturn, the outermost planet in this system, complete a full orbit. Around this, shooting stars and planets appear, with the colors of the planets pictured using the Only Watch 2023 palette.

Estimate: CHF 90,000 – 110,000.

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Only Watch 2023 Favorites: F.P. Journe 

This year more than sixty watchmakers have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which begins Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After a visit to Los Angeles last week and New York until September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

We continue our series by highlighting the F. P. Journe entry, called Chronometre Furtif Bleu, a time-only watch that features an unusual blue enamel dial within a complete tantalum case and bracelet. 

The Chronomètre Furtif is so-named in reference to the difficulty of reading the time if the watch is not facing you. Unusually, the blue enamel dial reveals the frosted numerals only in the reflection of light.

In addition, the moon phase and power reserve indications are integrated into the movement and visible only on the back. The idea here to make a watch with indications primarily enjoyed only by its owner.

At the heart of this watch is a new hand-wound mechanical movement, Calibre 1522 in 18-karat rose gold with direct central seconds, a first for F.P.Journe. 

Estimate: CHF 200,000 – 400,000.

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