Christie's June 11 auction, A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, Omega and pocket watches

These are my picks for the upcoming auction on June 11 at Christie's. I choose some A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet vintage Chrono, Vacheron Constantin vintage Chrono and a beautiful Omega made in 1936 (37.5mm).

I start with the A. Lange & Söhne Datograph flyback chrono made in 2005 and cased in platinum. Lot N°166. Estimated 30 000$ - 50 000$.

The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph is for my personally one of the most beautiful watches made by Lange. This one comes in white gold and was made in 2000. Lot N°164. Estimated 15 000$ - 20 000$.

A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 with black dial and luminous indexes made in 2010. Lot N°165. Estimated 18 000$ - 22 000$.

Audemars Piquet Chronograph made in 1946 with the highly sought-after mouvement 13VZAH. In 1946 Audemars Piguet produced only 853 watches overall and there were only 18 with the 13VZAH movement made. Lot N°234. Estimated 30 000$ - 50 000$.





















Vacheron Constantin reference 6087 made in 1955. There were only 36 examples made of the reference 6087, 26 in yellow gold, 8 in pink gold and 2 in platinum. So this one is a quite rare watch beautifully designed with its unusual lugs. Lot N°233. Estimated 20 000$ - 30 000$.

And an other wristwatch made by Vacheron Constantin, reference 4072, made in 1940. Lot N°232. Estimated 12 000$ - 18 000$.

Beautiful Omega steel wristwatch made in 1936 and for that time with oversized case of 37.5mm in diameter. It does have a beautiful sector dial. Movement 26.5 SOB T2. Lot N°190. Estimated 5 000$ - 8 000$.

And then we come to the pocket watches. I start with a beautiful minute repeater made by Charles Frodsham in 1885. Lot N°128. Estimated 6 000$ - 8 000$.

A very beautiful Patek Philippe minute repeater with perpetual calendar and moon phases made in 1890. Lot N°141. Estimated 40 000$ - 60 000$.

An extremely rare and very impressive Tiffany & Co. minute repeater with split seconds cronograph. The more this really beautiful pocket watch is set with diamonds, ruby and sapphire. Lot N°142. Estimated 100 000$ - 150 000$.

Kind regards.
Christian
(pictures by Christie's)

Christie's May 28 auction

Dear watch aficionado.

Herewith I present you my picks of the upcoming auction at Christie's on May 28.

A rare A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Tourbillon pour le Mérite cased in pink gold. Lot N°2494. Estimated 130 000$ - 160 000$.

A rare A. Lange & Söhne Lange 31 cased in platinum. Lot N°2491. Estimated 80 000$ - 120 000$.

A. Lange & Söhne limited Lange 1 Tourbillon cased in platinum, Number 13/150. Lot N°2488. Estimated 80 000$ - 120 000$.

A. Lange & Söhne Datograph cased in platinum. Lot N°2484. Estimated 30 000$ - 50 000$.

An extremely rare and important Patek Philippe Pocket Watch Observatory Tourbillon made by Hector Golay and then delivered to the workshop of Patek Philippe where the movement was finished. The movement was made in 1930 and encased in 1938. Lot N°2738. Estimated 150 000$ - 200 000$.

Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 made in 1944 and comes with the early dial "Patek Philippe & Co." signature together with larger fonts for the day and month indication. Lot N°2793. Estimated 230 000$ - 320 000$.

Kind regards.

Christian

(photos by Christie's)

Marc Jenni, the way of his new in-house movement. Pt8

Marc Jenni: Getting the cockpit ready for take-off! The upper deck is for the spindle speed and the lower deck controls the three step motors for the X, Y and Z axes.

Kind regards.
Christian

Marc Jenni, the way of his new in-house movement. Pt5, Pt6 & Pt7

Marc Jenni: Notes like these help me programming the CNC machine- each circle, arch, bow or hole needs to get referenced with its own position and depth.

Marc Jenni: When finally the CNC program is written, the fun may begin. You can spot the cut-out circles for the wheel train. View on my vintage Olivetti computer from 1995 with a CAM program running on Windows 3.1.

Marc Jenni: And back to the brass plate where the 0-position for the Z axis needs to be determined. (Check out the two little circles on the upper level of the plate). This process happens every time a milling cutter or a drill needs to be changed.

Kind regards.
Christian

Marc Jenni, the way of his new in-house movement. Pt4

Marc Jenni: Monday morning, transfer of the data from PC to the CNC. Even though I work with new computers and software - I still have to reply on the vintage floppy disk drive with its 3 1/2 inch disk...!

Age of soft- and hardware:

-MacBook Pro 2011
- Solidworks 2008
- CNC machine 1995
- Me 1977

Kind regards.
Christian

Marc Jenni, the way of his new in-house movement. Pt3

Marc Jenni: "Back to the movement manufacturing project...! Prior to start the manufacturing process I need to convert the 3D drawings into a 2D adaptation for the CNC machine.

You can already see the wheel train recess and the global shape of the main plate. Before machining the main plate - the 3D drawing needs to be converted to a usable DXF file. As you can see, I will start with shaping the outside of the plate as well as the positions of the wheel train.

Who says 2D is old fashion? I need this format to switch from the PC to the CNC station... By the way, the circles and lines need to be configured the way I can program later on the CNC machine. This adds additional work, which I gain later on when the machine works for me.

Kind regards.
Christian

Marc Jenni, the way of his new in-house movement. Pt2

Marc Jenni:"Let's get ready! The 5mm brass plate gets positioned with two position holes which also allow me to work symetrically on two main plates at the same time and to switch from one side to the other....

But what should be milled? From where do I get the data and technical information....?"

Marc Jenni, the way of his new in-house movement. Pt1

Marc Jenni is about to create a completely in house movement and invites you to follow his path during the next weeks and months:

Marc Jenni: "I have decided to open the doors of my atelier (virtually at least) and to allow my friends and followers to accompany me on my new journey - the creation of my new watch movement.

During the coming weeks and months, I will regularly post images and comments on advancements and status of the manufacturing process.

I hope you may enjoy my way of illustrating how watch parts are being shaped from rough material until the final decorated and functional watch  movement is born."

Kind regards.
Christian