Omega Railmaster (lot 175, £3,800 – £4,800). Fellows image.
BIRMINGHAM, England – It’s often said that you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but Fellows auction house claims to do its best to prove this adage wrong. Its auction of vintage and modern wristwatches on Monday, Oct. 14, should go a long way in doing that for watch collectors and first-time buyers alike. The 360-lot auction will include the venerated masters of watchmaking such as Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin to fashionable newcomers Gucci and Christian Dior. LiveAuctioneer.com will provide Internet live bidding. The auction will begin at 11 a.m. GMT (3 a.m. Pacific).
Fellows has a treat for watch collectors in the form of a Rolex Comex Submariner issue number 5513, circa 1972 (lot 236, £18,000-£25,000). The collaboration between Rolex and COMEX, the pioneering French dive company, led to the development of the Seadweller with its Helium escape valve. This Submariner represents an early stage of this research as it features the escape valve but does not yet have the COMEX logo displayed on the dial. Still, these rare birds were issued only to employees of the company and are seldom available in auction or elsewhere.
Fellows also has a rarity in the form of the Omega Railmaster (lot 175, £3,800-£4,800). As the name suggests, it was originally designed for railroad engineers and designed to withstand exposure to magnetic interference, which would seriously affect the timekeeping of ordinary watches or stop them completely. Omega solved this problem by surrounding the movement with a soft iron inner case and a thick dial plate, creating a Faraday cage. This internal protection was complemented by Omega’s Naiad crown system and armored crystal, giving a water resistance of 200 feet. Because too few technicians needed the Railmaster and it lacked the appeal of a dive watch or chronograph to the wider public, today this is a rare watch and highly desired by collectors.
A few oddities are on offer such as a dual signed Jaeger-LeCoultre from Fortnum & Masons, a Heuer Chronosplit “Manhattan” and a four time-zone watch from Meccaniche Veloci.
There is also an excellent collector’s piece in the form of lot 190, a Patek Philipe Beta 21 bracelet watch (£7,000-£10,000). The movement’s development saw several prototypes, the first is recognized as the first quartz watch ever made, but which was not released for sale. Only 6,000 units of the final result, the Beta 21, were produced—shared between all the collaborating watch brands. This Patek is an exercise in bold early ’70s styling, but less superficially it stands as a testament to the technological race that marked the transition from electronic watches to modern quartz. As such, it is a rare example and highly collectible.
Collector’s pieces are ranged alongside contemporary watches from all the great brands: Rolex, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Breitling, TAG Heuer and many more.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Omega Railmaster (lot 175, £3,800 – £4,800). Fellows image. Patek Philipe Beta 21 bracelet watch (£7,000-£10,000). Fellows image. Rolex Comex Submariner, circa 1972 (lot 236, £18,000-£25,000). Fellows image.
