Musical Clock, Patek Watch are Top Sellers at Sotheby’s Auction

A rare singing bird automaton clock and a Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph were among the top sellers at Sotheby’s New York Important Watches & Clocks Auction held Wednesday.

The elaborate and rare parcel-gilt bronze vase-form musical singing bird automaton clock (above) with hour and half hour striking, circa 1828, represents a collaboration between the famed firms of Piguet & Meylan and Frédéric Rochat, and is one of only a handful of vases containing singing birds known to exist. It sold for $302,500, just above the clock’s estimated value.

A 1950 Patek Philippe 18k yellow gold perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch (left) with resister, tachometer and moon phases, ref. 1518, also sold for $302,500. The watch has 13 manual winding movement, 23 jewels, silver dial, applied gold Arabic numerals, feuille hands, two subsidiary dials indicating constant seconds and 30-minute register, fan-form aperture for moon-phases combined with date, apertures for day and month, outer scales calibrated for 60 units and tachometer scale, two rectangular chronograph pushers, downturned lugs, snap back case, dial and movement, and signed 18k yellow gold Patek Philippe buckle. It includes an archives extract that confirms a sale of the watch on Feb. 17, 1954.

Total sales for Sotheby’s auction were nearly 5.8 million.