By ASHOK SOMAN

Auction season continues with Christie’s autumn sale of Important Watches in Hong Kong 2 December at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. More than 450 rare timepieces from the likes of Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Rolex, Ulysse Nardin and Vacheron Constantin will go under the hammer, so to speak.

The auction house puts the value of all these fine watches at HKD60 million (USD7.5 million). For us, one of the highlights has to be the A. Lange & Sohne Tourbograph “Pour Le Merite,” pictured here, which Christie’s lists as between HKD2,200,000-4,000,000/USD285,000-516,000. Only 51 pieces were ever made in platinum and none are available at retail.

The tourbograph is only one of a few notable tourbillon pieces, including the Invention Piece No. 1 from Greubel Forsey and the Panerai Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT (PAM 00306), appearing at the Important Watches auction.

From Breguet, the Double Tourbillon is also on offer, at HKD1,600,000-2,400,000/USD200,000-300,000. With its intricately engraved caseback, this is one of most technically and visually exciting watches to emerge from that great manufacture.

Finally, we must mention the lovely selection of Patek Philippe watches, including the ultra-discreet Reference 5101P. Other notable Patek Philippe pieces on offer are the special edition Reference 5079J for retailer George Pragnell Ltd (limited to five pieces), Reference 5075G (limited to 10 pieces) with a cloisonné enamel dial, and Reference 3974 (discontinued in 2002 and only produced in a very limited series that Christie’s puts at 90).

Christie’s