Phillips’ Gamechangers auction is being held in New York today. It’s the “Brando auction” the watch world has been abuzz about for the past six months. I’ll spare you any more ink on the Brando Rolex GMT, and let you read Phillips’ article on the piece if you haven’t yet; Phillips has an amazing marketing team, and there has been plenty of content and promotion around this auction. I enjoyed listening to Phillips Head of Watches speak on Blamo! Podcast and on Hodinkee Radio, where he told plenty of great stories: how the Brando Rolex GMT came to him, meeting Jack Nicklaus, and how Boutros himself got into the watch business.

Meanwhile, Jack Nicklaus joined Hodinkee for a Talking Watches episode a couple years back where he talks about the gold Day-Date that’s been with him throughout his historic golfing career. With that watch up for auction today, it’s worth going back and listening to a living legend talk Rolex. In his later years, Nicklaus has become known for his philanthropic work and children’s hospitals as much as for his golf career, so it’s nice to see that the proceeds of the sale will go to the furthering of these efforts.

John Glenn, discovered

As I wrote in my weekly newsletter, one of my favorite stories about the watches up for auction at Gamechangers comes from Jeff Stein. The proprietor of Heuer-focused OnTheDash, he published two articles diving deep into John Glenn’s watches. Two of Glenn’s watches are up for auction at Phillips’ upcoming December 10 “Gamechangers” auction: a LeCoultre “Lucky 13” watch (Lot 13) and Breitling Reference 809 “Cosmonaute” (Lot 14). But, Stein was also able to acquire a few for himself. First, he tells the story of his Hunt for John Glenn’s Watches, involving frantically phoning Glenn’s estate sale in March of 2018. Then, he gives An Overview and Bibliography of the Watches of John Glenn.

First, Stein tells an exciting story of his efforts to buy a few of John Glenn’s watches from a Glenn’s estate sale over a year ago. The sale went largely under the radar until Stein discovered it and made an effort to purchase a few of Glenn’s watches that hadn’t yet been sold. These include a “poor man’s Heuer” Bulova chronograph and a small black 24-hour LeCoultre that was specially commissioned for Glenn and the other Mercury 7 astronauts. Stein takes great lengths to describe how Glenn was a true hero of his growing up, so what I love most is Stein’s recounting of the first time he slipped the watches he acquired onto his wrist:

I thought of the collectors who had bought Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona and Steve McQueen’s Heuer Monaco, and wondered how they felt wearing those watches.  But I could honestly say, at least to myself, “Forget those guys. I am wearing John Glenn’s watch.” Newman and McQueen were actors cast as heroes. John Glenn was a real-life hero, celebrated around the world. More than that, he was my hero.    

Then, in his Overview post, Stein goes more in-depth into all of John Glenn’s watches, both the ones he purchased and the ones for sale in Phillips’ upcoming Gamechangers auction.

Speaking of Gamechangers…

In addition to highlighting John Glenn’s watches up for sale, the Wall Street Journal highlights the Urwerk UR-105 CT Iron that Tony Stark wears as Ironman in Avengers: Endgame. Real life Ironman, Robert Downey, Jr., will donate the proceeds from the sale of Lot 75 to charity.

Quill & Pad also features a Lange 1 in stainless steel for sale, one of about 25 believed to be produced, as well as a Phillipe Dufour Simplicity in platinum. We featured one of these from Phillips’ Geneva Auction X last month, which ended up selling for $325,000.

Speaking of that odd “Lucky 13” LeCoultre of Glenn’s: It was gifted to him by the Anti-Superstition Society of Chicago. It seems like a missed opportunity not to auction this one off next Friday, December 13, but perhaps the sale price will have a few digits to spook the Paraskevidekatriaphobics among us.

There are many other amazing pieces up for auction that have been overshadowed by the star power at this auction: a pink-on-pink Patek Phillipe Ref. 1518 is sure to reach a stratospheric hammer price; a Patek Phillipe Ref. 5950 split seconds chronograph in a tonneau case is a rare sighting as is a Rolex Milsub (those sword hands get me every time). It’s often the case at auctions — but especially at this one — that strong top lots are drawing some attention away from worthy undercards.

Finally, there’s also the Urwek AMC, perhaps even more astonishing than Ironman’s Urwerk. Requiring a decade of research and development, just three pieces of the set were issued in 2019, selling for CHF 2,750,000 each.

The AMC melds two approaches to chronometry, fusing traditional horology and atomic physics to produce two autonomous but linked systems that achieve precision timing with a margin of error of one second in 317 years. Comprised of an atomic master clock and a standalone mechanical wristwatch, the master clock automatically winds, sets, and regulates the wristwatch when it’s docked to improve its timekeeping.

However, the coolest thing about the AMC might be that it was actually inspired by Abraham-Louis Breguet.

In 1795, Breguet outlined his desire to create a timepiece that could be set, wound and regulated without the wearer having to do anything to the watch, including opening the case back, and in 1798 he presented his first Sympathique Clock. A technological marvel, the system featured a master clock with pocket watch, which could be attached to the clock and it would be automatically wound and adjusted. Apparently, Breguet could never quite get his contraption to achieve winding, setting, and regulating. A couple centuries later, Urwerk has taken Breguet’s idea and revolutionized it by applying modern physics.

While the standalone atomic clock Urwerk developed is a stunning achievement in atomic physics (that I don’t totally understand), the wristwatch is just as impressive a mechanical achievement. The watch’s escapement is adjusted to beat more accurately through an entirely mechanical sensor within the watch that compares the timing of the clock to that of its own escapement. The clock therefore serves as the wristwatch’s own “watchmaker”, where its microadjustments, when performed regularly, merge the chronometric performance of the watch to that of the clock, leading to more precise timekeeping.