28 October

The day in brief

Phillips will auction Cartier's Portico No. 4 in Geneva on 7 and 8 November: a 1924 mystery clock, the only one of the series of six with a hexagonal dial, estimated at CHF 1.8 to 3.2 million.

According to a count by WatchPro, Bucherer, the retailer owned by Rolex since 2023, has opened seven of the thirteen Rolex boutiques inaugurated worldwide since January. Among the new releases, Nomos Glashütte adds a 38.5 mm version of the Club with the hand-wound DUW 4001 calibre, and Neuchâtel-based Elka Watch Co. dedicates two versions of a new watch to the Tour des Chavannes, a medieval tower in the city.

Phillips brings Portico No. 4, Cartier's hexagonal-dial mystery clock, to Geneva

Phillips, in association with Bacs & Russo, will offer Cartier's Portico No. 4 at The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV on 7 and 8 November at the Hotel President in Geneva. It is lot 220, carries an estimate of CHF 1.8 to 3.2 million and returns to auction for the first time since 1996. The preview runs from 4 to 7 November.

Cartier made six Portico clocks between 1923 and 1925 with the clockmaker Maurice Coüet. Their form recalls the gateway of an Asian temple: the carved rock-crystal dial hangs like a gong between two columns. Nos. 3 and 4 are the largest and most elaborate of the series, and the only ones with square rather than round columns. No. 4 stands apart from all the others with its six-sided dial, whereas the other five have twelve sides.

The piece measures 38.5 cm high and 28 cm wide and weighs 10.6 kg. It combines yellow gold, platinum, enamel, onyx, jade, mother-of-pearl, seed pearls and diamonds. The bezel pairs onyx and jade with diamond-set Roman numerals and an inner row of seed pearls, while the hands, pavé-set with rose-cut diamonds, form a dragon. Two jade trees rise from the bases of the rock-crystal columns, which are decorated with black enamel.

The mystery effect comes from a mechanical solution. Each hand is fixed to a transparent disc, and the movement turns these discs by their circumference, out of sight, so the hands appear to float with no connection to any mechanism. Cartier first used the principle in 1912 in the Model A, with precedents in the illusion clocks made in the 19th century by the French clockmaker and magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin. In the Portico clocks, the key-wound movement by the European Watch & Clock Company is concealed in the arch above the dial rather than in the base, as in Cartier's earlier mystery clocks.

The clock belonged to Alain Cartier, grandson of Louis Cartier, and is said to have been in the collection of the Maharajah of Nawanagar, ruler of a princely state in western India. It was last sold publicly on 19 November 1996 at The Magical Art of Cartier auction in Geneva and comes with a Cartier certificate of authenticity dated 2002. Portico No. 3, with rose-quartz columns and a twelve-sided dial, was sold by Phillips in May 2025 for CHF 3,932,000.

Find out more on the auction house's website.

Bucherer has opened seven of the thirteen Rolex boutiques inaugurated in 2026

Bucherer, the Swiss retailer that Rolex bought in 2023, has opened more than half of the Rolex boutiques inaugurated this year. The finding comes from a WatchPro analysis of openings recorded since January: of the thirteen new single-brand boutiques, seven belong to Bucherer.

Bucherer's openings began in April in Munich. They were followed by Stuttgart in May, Mount Titlis in Switzerland in June, presented as the world's highest Rolex boutique, and a second boutique in Shanghai, also in June. Three more arrived in October: Bellevue, near Seattle; Paris, Bucherer's first Rolex boutique in France; and, according to WatchPro, Hong Kong, in the Mandarin Oriental hotel complex in Central. As the Radar reported on 22 October, the Paris boutique has two floors and a space for certified pre-owned watches.

The other six openings are by independent retailers: Cortina Watch in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, Khimji's Watches in Udaipur, DAFC in Ho Chi Minh City, Liljenquist & Beckstead in McLean, Virginia, and Relojería Alemana in Palma de Mallorca.

The figures point to a network that is consolidating. When Rolex bought it, Bucherer had more than a hundred points of sale worldwide; today it has around eighty, according to WatchPro, and it will take over the management of the Rolex boutique on Fifth Avenue in New York, due to open early next year. In 2025, at Dubai Watch Week, Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour said the brand had no intention of growing Bucherer and that partnerships with the best retailers were the foundation of its success.

Find out more on the retailer's website.

Nomos adds a 38.5 mm case with the hand-wound DUW 4001 calibre to the Club

Nomos Glashütte has presented the Club 38, a larger version of the Club, the Saxon brand's sport-inspired model. The polished steel case measures 38.5 mm in diameter, 8.4 mm thick (8.5 mm with a sapphire caseback) and 46.7 mm from lug to lug, and is water-resistant to 100 metres. The 36 mm Club remains in the catalogue.

There are two references. The 769 has a white silver-plated dial, blackened hands with red Super-LumiNova and grey Arabic numerals outlined in black. The 770, the Club 38 Ruthenium, has a dark grey galvanised ruthenium dial, rhodium-plated hands with white Super-LumiNova and numerals outlined in yellow. On both, the small seconds at 6 o'clock has a snailed finish.

The movement is the hand-wound DUW 4001, with the regulating organ Nomos makes in Glashütte, the swing system: balance, hairspring, pallet fork and escape wheel produced by the brand itself rather than bought from a supplier. It beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), has a 53-hour power reserve and is regulated in six positions. The stop-seconds function halts the balance when the crown is pulled, so the time can be set to the second.

The Club 38 is priced from EUR 1,520 (white dial) and from EUR 1,560 (Ruthenium), on a Horween Shell Cordovan leather strap. The sapphire caseback costs an extra EUR 220.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Elka dedicates a watch with only hours and minutes to Neuchâtel's Tour des Chavannes

Elka Watch Co., a Neuchâtel brand relaunched in 2022 by Hakim El Kadiri, has presented the Tour des Chavannes, a special edition of the R Series. The name comes from a medieval tower in Neuchâtel, demolished in 1867, and from the street where the brand has its boutique, at 16 Rue des Chavannes. Elka revives the name of a house founded in Amsterdam in 1877, Eduard Louis Kiek Amsterdam.

There are two versions. The 1736 Edition has a black dial with gold-coloured hands and numerals and is inspired by a dial painted in 1736 by Samuel Müller. The Pierre d'Hauterive has a beige dial with black inscriptions and evokes Hauterive limestone, the yellow stone of the Neuchâtel region.

The brushed and polished steel case measures 40.8 mm in diameter, 10.8 mm thick and 46.5 mm from lug to lug. It has a domed chevé-type sapphire crystal, a push-pull crown, a sapphire caseback and water resistance of 50 metres.

The movement is the automatic La Joux-Perret G101, made in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz) and has a 68-hour power reserve. Elka uses it with hours and minutes only, without a seconds hand or date, which leaves the dial cleaner. Each version costs CHF 1,716 excluding taxes, and neither is a limited series.

Find out more on the brand's website.

What to watch

Geneva hosts the auction season in early November. Besides Phillips on 7 and 8 November, Christie's holds its Rare Watches sale on 9 November, with 218 lots, at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues. Portico No. 4 will test the market for great table clocks: No. 3 exceeded CHF 3.9 million in 2025, above the top of the estimate now set for No. 4.

The Rolex network continues to consolidate into larger single-brand boutiques. The opening of the Fifth Avenue boutique, managed by Bucherer, early next year will show how far the role of the group's retailer extends, at a time when Rolex says it does not intend to grow it.

Among the new releases, Nomos keeps the 36 mm Club and adds a 38.5 mm case only 0.2 mm thicker, while Elka offers a Swiss automatic calibre with a 68-hour power reserve for under CHF 2,000.