Gyrotourbillon 1 by Jaeger-LeCoultre

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Two wristwatches of the same model are presented for auction at three week intervals and some thousand kilometers away. Yet there were only 75 copies made of the Gyrotourbillon 1 of Jaeger-LeCoultre, at a rate of 20 per year.

This skeleton model includes the Calibre 177 of Jaeger-LeCoultre, a component that represents an important technical progress by enabling a multi-axis rotation.

The number 01/75 is retained by the Museum of the brand. The following number 02/75 is the earliest to be available on the market. It is coming on September 17 in New York at Antiquorum. It will be followed by the number 11/75, at Sotheby's in Hong Kong on October 7.

This apparent coincidence is interesting because it follows after only a few months the end of production. The model was launched in 2005, and one can easily calculate that the series was completed a few months ago.

It is estimated 270 K$ in New York, and 2 MHK$ in Hong Kong. These two prices are similar, and not far below the commercial price that could be found on the web. This means, whatever the result of the sale, that auction sales are used and favoured as a process in the market for contemporary luxury watch.

What's better than a video to appreciate the complexity of the movement of a Gyrotourbillon 1? Here is one on Youtube.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Let us begin with the result at Antiquorum: the Gyrotourbillon was sold just below the low estimate: $ 260 K excl (312 K $ including fees). It's a good price, considering the arguments I discussed above by comparison with the previous price of the brand piece.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

No surprise for this second lot of my article, sold 2.3 MHK$ including premium by Sotheby's.