We love the ONLY WATCH auction that takes place every other year in Monaco for the support of charity. Why do we love it? Well a range of participating watch brands produce totally unique watches that are auctioned off for charity (Monegasque Association against Muscular Dystrophy). The pieces are sometimes mere color variations on existing models, and sometimes they are radically new models that are production concepts or signs of things to come. In any event, they are all one-off pieces (with the exception of models that are “#1” in a limited edition). The brands do it for the massive media exposure and marketing opportunity.
UPDATE: See the aBlogtoWatch full list of Only Watch 2013 Watches.
2013 is the 5th edition of the Only Watch (administered and operated by auctioneer Antiquorum) auction and it will take place later in 2013 on September 28th. The participating brands will slowly release their Only Watch pieces until then. While more brands may be added later, here are the companies that we expect to see interesting timepieces from over the next several months:
- Backes & Strauss
- Bell & Ross
- Blancpain
- Breguet
- Chanel
- Chopard
- ChronoSwiss
- Christophe Claret
- Corum
- Cyrus
- deLaCour
- De Bethune
- DeWitt
- Franck Muller
- Frédérique Constant
- Girard Perregaux
- Glasshütte Original
- Harry Winston
- Heritage Watch Manufactory
- Hublot, Ikepod
- Jaquet Droz
- Ladoire
- Laurent Ferrier
- Louis Vuitton
- Manufacture Royale
- Maurice Lacroix
- Montblanc
- Patek Philippe
- Piaget
- Richard Mille
- Roger Dubuis
- Armin Strom
- Ulysse Nardin
- Vacheron Constantin
- Van Cleef & Arpels
- Vulcain
- Zenith
In regards to watches, especially mechanical watches, there is no denying that they’re astoundingly complicated miniature machines. Have you thought about how those watches were created and validated before the first piece of metal is cut? This was completely done by hand with slow and drawings prototyping. But starting in the 1990s, the watch market has moved toward utilizing design and engineering applications to make everything from instances to movements.SolidWorks is a software suite that lots of high-end watch manufacturers rely on to design and test motions digitally. In a recent video we can see the way the Franck Muller movement design may come together, like the Giga Gong Tourbillon we’re viewing in CAD.Frankly, after watching something like this, it seems almost indescribable that watchmakers were able to advance the craft as they did before the advent of tools like this.Of course, it probably involved a great deal of trial and error, and fiddly modification of components – in other words, quite a bit more difficult than what we have today.Even though software makes matters simpler, nothing is full until the moves and instances are produced in real metal. Software still is not able to account for all, especially the different metals and materials react to one another or era. So even though technology makes the layout of mechanical movements much more effective, manufacturers still should verify and test everything the conventional way.It’s with tools like these that we’re able to find the jumps in design and functionality that contemporary watches have brought to the table. Therefore, if you’ve wondered why the last two decades have observed watches historically never possible, this is why. With increasingly complex 3D modelling tools added to the arsenal of watch founders, there is no telling what we might end up watching coming down the line.
That is a huge number of brands and you can compare them to the all the pieces from the Only Watch 2011 auction. We look forward to sharing with you the auction pieces as they trickle out leading up to the event in September of 2013. onlywatch.com