Chef and noted watch collector Alton Brown is partnering with watch resale site Crown & Caliber to auction off a couple of his personal watches. The proceeds will benefit the Giving Kitchen, a non-profit based in Alton’s and Crown & Caliber’s hometown of Atlanta that’s providing emergency assistance to food service workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Personally, I grew up watching Alton’s Good Eats on the Food Network, and my cooking skills have yet to advance much beyond his tips for building the perfect grilled cheese. To a certain generation of cable-watching kids, he’s a Martha-Stewart level icon, with the affable, quirky personality that gives you a hint he might just be weird enough to be into something crazy like vintage watches.
Head to the Auction Page at Crown & Caliber for more info, but rest assured that 100 percent of the sale will be going to the charitable cause. Here’s a video message from Alton explaining the auction and the cause:
Now, let’s take a quick look at Alton Brown’s personal pieces that are up for auction. If you’ve heard Alton talk about his life and watches before, you know he’s a pilot and he has a real passion for aviation-inspired watches, so you’ll find that the pieces up for auction tie in well to his collecting modus operandi.
Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon
Allright, we all know the jokes about Omega and its penchant for releasing limited edition Speedmasters. But the Speedy is a worthy platform for such releases, and sometimes Omega manages to get it right. To me, the Omega Dark Side of the Moon is one such limited edition. It’s got a slick “vintage black” color scheme that trades the Speedmaster’s traditional stainless steel for ceramic, with a black dial and warm vintage-looking SuperLuminova to match.
Released back in 2015, this Speedmaster celebrated the astronauts of Apollo 8, the first space crew to leave low Earth orbit, circle the moon, and return. According to Crown & Caliber, Alton has kept it in excellent condition — not surprising from a consummate collector like Brown.
Crown & Caliber puts the fair market value of the watch at $7,500.
Next up is Alton’s IWC Portugese reference IW37114-46, another stainless steel chronograph. The Portugese is one of the most iconic watches in IWC’s collection, which is saying something for a brand defined by its pilot’s watches. It’s got rose-gold plated hands and indices, and a blue steel sweeping chronograph hand that pops against the creamy white dial.
To me, it’s the perfect “dress chronograph”, with a slightly more sophisticated look than you might find in a sportier watch (for example, IWC’s Big Pilots)
Crown & Caliber puts the fair market value of this watch at $5,100.
In addition to the two watches from Alton Brown’s collection, Crown & Caliber is also offering a Tudor Black Bay 58 as part of the auction, with a minimum bid of $4,500. By the looks of it, they’re trying to gather more watches for charitable donation to, so keep an eye on Crown & Caliber for more fun watches to be auctioned off.
The auction for both of Alton’s watches ends on the afternoon of Thursday, April 2.