Horolonomics

There are some really interesting and unique pieces on Phillips' currently running auction REFRESH:RELOAD. I think it is pretty neat to have a cross-catalogue auction online but, TBH, I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn't filter into watches only. It kind of reminds me of those aisle displays they put in supermarkets. What you really want is on the shelves but you have to swerve around all this other stuff to get to it. So, I curated out just the watches. They are listed below and they live link to the detailed description of each lot. These embeds take a little bit of time to generate so give them time to load and format properly in your browser.  Please note that I am not affiliated with Phillips in any way, shape or form, this is just a bunch of embeds from their page so that you don't have to scroll through all the art and jewelry and you can focus on just the watches. Enjoy and good luck if you bid! PS: I did my best to get all the watch lots but ...

My family and I have a tradition when we visit the beach. We search for sea glass. When jagged and sharp shards of broken glass land in the ocean the constant sluicing of sand changes them. Over decades or more the edges soften. Clear glass becomes cloudy. Given enough time the entire shape of the glass can morph, from rectangular to ovoid. Each piece of sea glass is inherently unique due to imperceptibly small forces which slowly accumulate, resulting in major changes. We know this is also true of vintage timepieces. After decades lume changes in hue. Dial faces crack, craze and fade. An object which was often mass produced consequently becomes a “pièce unique.” Watches are engineered to accurately and unchangeably mark the passage of time. We love and value vintage watches for the fact that they are altered by time itself. The story I offer here underwent similar changes. It began as an effort to understand more about an unfinished chapter in the history of Rolex. It b...