Clock Works: Highlights from the Upcoming 2024 TimeForArt Auction

We like to brag about our fortune-telling skills, but nobody needed a crystal ball to predict that Mojdeh Cutter would go on to accomplish great things when we included her on our first 30 Under 30ish List back in 2022.

Cutter is the Managing Director of TimeForArt – the first and only benefit watch auction to support contemporary art and artists. This event, to be held December 7th in New York City, is a joint venture between Phillips, the auction house we all know and love, and the Swiss Institute, which was founded by Swiss philanthropists to showcase the work of emerging artists from across the world.

Since the Swiss Institute and Phillips came together for the inaugural TimeForArt auction just two years ago, the charity has grown in prestige. With Cutter’s passion for art, horology, and philanthropy, she has helped collaborate with an ever-growing list of top watchmakers to develop a collection of incredible horological works of art.

That is why, today, we wanted to look at some of the most creative and expressive lots from this year’s curation.

Independent Swiss watch brand Armin Strom’s exclusive entry for TimeForArt 2024 is a tribute to the Swiss painter and printmaker Franz Gertsch (1930-2022) and his blue phase, during which Gertsch frequently employed pigments made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli.
 

For this watch, which is an adaptation of the brand’s Mirrored Force Resonance model, Armin Strom used lapis sourced from the same spot where Gertsch found his pigments. This luminous surface, paired with a super shiny 43mm stainless steel case, encapsulates Gertsch’s unique aesthetic.
 

Inside, Armin Strom’s Resonance complication shares the artist’s eye for detail. Two balance wheels synchronize and regulate each other to stabilize timekeeping and compensate for the effects of gravity and wrist movements. The wearer can also enjoy the kinetic spectacle of this movement through a display caseback.
 

In ancient Greece, the arts — poetry, painting, and music — were intertwined. At the top of the list of miniaturized watch depictions of the heavens, the moon phase is the most lyrical and poetic of all complications, because it is a metaphor of the meaning of time itself.

The Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary is a modern distillation of these ancient ideals. Breitling was founded in 1884 and is celebrating its birthday with its first perpetual calendar chronograph movement with a moon phase — the Caliber B19.
 

This mechanism automatically adjusts for leap years and months of varying lengths, capable of running for nearly a century without needing a major adjustment. With an impressive 96-hour power reserve, this new caliber is a tribute to the brand's "140 Years of Firsts" celebrations.

The idea of flight is also powerfully poetic. The Navitimer was developed in 1952 for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). This aviation tool watch combines a chronograph with a circular slide rule to perform critical flight calculations on the go. The TimeForArt Limited Edition incorporates the signature slide rule with a green dial and black subdials.
 

The movement itself features a solid-gold rotor engraved with Breitling’s historic Montbrillant manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, home to three generations of the Breitling family. It comes set on an alligator leather strap with an 18k gold folding buckle.
 

To extend the contemplative nature of this unique auction edition, the watch comes housed in an exclusive 140th Anniversary leather watch winder with a customizable range of 300 to 12,000 turns per day. It also includes a special edition of the Breitling: 140 Years in 140 Stories book published recently by Rizzoli.

To celebrate its 140th anniversary, Bulgari produced a series of watches with dials illustrated with the movement, including the special edition Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Sketch, which features a cheeky, almost post-modern drawing of the automatic Manufacture movement.
 

This TimeForArt version features a 43mm satin-polished rose gold case with a slimness of 8.75mm. However, the dial design is not a completely faithful rendering of this calibre.
 

Instead, this auction piece blends the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT’s signature chronograph display (GMT at three o’clock, 30-minute counter at six o’clock, and small seconds at nine o’clock) with a balance represented between four and five o’clock, the emblematic column wheel at eight o’clock, and exquisite finishing details on the bridges and gears.

Hot on the heels of its recent GPHG wins, Chopard is given another opportunity to showcase its savoir-faire with its Alpine Eagle 41 XP TimeForArt Edition.
 

In this take on the Alpine Eagle 41 XP, the Maison has introduced an intricate straw marquetry dial using artisanal expertise perfected by Chopard’s in-house decoration Artisans.
 

This technique, first introduced in the 17th century, turns each delicate fiber filament into a feathery shape, symbolizing nobility. These meticulously arranged strands are also an ode to NYC’s jazzy skyline.
 

The Swiss Institute may have been founded by Swiss philanthropists, but it’s based in the Big Apple, a city celebrated for its dynamic art scene. Thus, it is fitting that Speake Marin’s TimeForArt offering, called “Promenade à New York,” is an exquisite homage to this capital of culture.
 

This unique piece, powered by the in-house self-winding SMA03, has a 42mm diameter round Piccadilly case in grade 5 polished and brushed titanium. It serves as the frame for a mother-of-pearl canvas decorated with a miniature cityscape of New York City, inspired by Speake Marin CEO Christelle Rosnoblet’s memories of long walks in Central Park on Sunday afternoons.
 

To learn more about the auction or to check out the rest of the lots, please visit the TimeForArt website.