The aura around vintage and historically important Patek Philippe timepieces continue to impact sales at auctions. Four Patek Philippe wristwatches, with impeccable provenance, fetched a whopping 8,307,500 Swiss Francs ($8.76 million on current exchange rates) at the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction XI held on June 27-28. The four watches belonged to watch industry legend Jean-Claude Biver and one of the watches, a perpetual calendar chronograph from 1948 alone pulled in about $3.5 million. Biver - Non-Executive President of LVMH Group’s Watch Division and member of the Advisory Board of Phillips Auctions - is a larger-than-life character and one of the most influential people in the watch industry. He is credited with the revival of Blancpain as a haute horology brand, is the man behind Omega’s association with James Bond, he also famously turned Hublot into the flamboyant success it is today. Along the way, Biver also assembled a formidable collection of timepieces.
Supplied