In a little less than 19 hours, the eyes of the watch world will be on Geneva, where Chritie's will be auctioning 318 watches, including two Patek Philippes that have received a lot of attention -- the J.B. Champion Observatory chronometer wristwatch in platinum (Lot 88) and the Reference 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph in platinum, currently owned by Eric Calpton (lot 151).

I read parts of the auction catalog yesterday. These are two amazing watches and the write-ups in the auction catlog are fascinating. While the Eric Clapton watch has received most of the attention in the press, the story of J.B. Champion and his is very interesting. He was a Texas lawyer, who was a VIP customer of Patek Philippe, and he received this Observatory tested chronometer in 1952.

Google either the Eric Clapton watch or the J.B. Champion watch, and you will have some interesting Sunday reading. Here are a couple of blog postings, to get you started:

-- http://blog.perpetuelle.com/special-reports/eric-clapton-auctions-ultra-rare-patek-philippe-ref-2499100-in-platinum/

-- http://www.hodinkee.com/eric-claptons-patek-philippe-2499

-- http://blogs.christies.com/longitude/brands/patek-philippe/first-live-pictures-eric-claptons-patek-philippe-2499-100-in-platinum-only-one-of-2-in-existence/

If our readers are interested, we can chat about the results tomorrow. Probably not directly relevant to our little corner of the vintage watch world, but -- all else being equal -- it seems that successful auctions of the best-of-the-best must be good for the vintage watch "asset class", in general.

Jeff