Displaying items by tag: watches

One of the world’s largest watch collections, owned by a Dutch dynastic family that dates back to the 13th century, is going under the hammer at Bonhams in December.

Containing 2,000 timepieces, the collection belongs to the late Jan Willem Frederik baron van Wassenaer, and is so vast that the pieces will be sold in instalments, via various auctions, throughout 2016.

The Palm Beach Show Group, which currently produces ten of the country’s top  fine art, jewelry, and antiques shows, has added another must-see event to its roster. The New York City Jewelry & Watch Show will debut on Friday, October 30, at the chic Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. The inaugural event will feature over 100 international dealers offering a stunning array of antique and estate jewelry and watches as well as a thoughtfully curated selection of contemporary pieces.

The New York City Jewelry & Watch Show is a sister event to the...

Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Abraham-Louis Breguet hailed from a bourgeois Protestant family that included several lawyers, teachers, pastors and merchants, but his own journey as a watchmaker began in his teens after his mother remarried one upon his father’s death.

Sent to Paris at the age of 15, he set up his atelier in 1775 on the Ile de la Cité and began his career with a series of inventions, including the automatic watch (known as perpétuelle), the gong spring for repeater watches, and the first shock-absorber device (the pare-chute).

The unique atmosphere of The Frick Collection has as much to do with the decorative arts as with the old master paintings that line the museum's walls. Indeed the enamels, clocks and watches, furniture, gilt bronzes, porcelain, ceramics, silver, and textiles far exceed in number, and are the equal in quality, of the works on canvas and panel.

The institution announces the publication of the first handbook devoted to the decorative arts in the collection.

Swiss luxury watchmaker Patek Philippe is taking over London's Saatchi Gallery until June 7, which will be the brand's most ambitious exhibition to date.

As part of “Watch Art Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition," visitors will be able to see, for the first time in London, more than 400 historical timepieces­—some of them from the Patek Philippe Museum collection—including the first Swiss wristwatch, which was made for a woman.

Once the jewel-encrusted playthings of the Russian royal family, the first Faberge Imperial egg produced in almost a century is set to be unveiled in Qatar, its makers said.

Ninety nine years since Faberge made its last Imperial egg, for Tsar Nicholas II, the famous jewel maker will show off its newest creation at an exhibition of watches and jewelery in Doha.

The "Faberge Pearl Egg" features 139 fine white pearls, and more than 3,300 diamonds as well as other precious gemstones, according to the jeweler.

Several Gulf nations have a long history of pearl diving, and Qatar is building an artificial island off its coast named after the precious treasure.

The Denver Art Museum's "Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century" is a boon for local museum goers who are getting a rare chance to see a sparkling array of jewelry, unsurpassed in craftsmanship and historical significance, and undoubtedly worth tens of millions of dollars.

But, make no mistake, there's a bonus in it for Cartier, too, which stars in the kind of commercial money can't buy. The exhibit focuses on Cartier's success in years past, but the company is still very much in business and happy to sell today's wealthy clients the same sort of shimmering necklaces, rings and watches lit to perfection in DAM's glass boxes.

Sotheby’s ten-day auction of the Collections of Andy Warhol in 1988 dispersed 179 watches the artist had owned. Some have resurfaced over the years and last year a Patek Philippe Ref. 2526 owned by the artist sold at Christie’s New York for $68,750, well above its $20,000‑30,000 estimate.

On November 11 Sotheby’s Geneva will be selling a Patek Philippe, Ref. 3448, made in 1977, and coming directly from the person who had bought it at the 1988 auction. The watch is estimated at $85,500‑128,000.

A painting by French Impressionist Edgar Degas valued at 6 million euros ($7.6 million) was stolen from a home in the Cypriot port city of Limassol, police said.

The painting, measuring 61 by 47 centimeters (24 by 19 inches) and entitled “Ballerina Adjusting Her Slipper,” was stolen yesterday along with items including gold watches and gold opera glasses worth a total of 157,000 euros, the Cypriot police said today in a statement on the force’s website.