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Over the next two months, watch lovers can bid on timepieces in two charity auctions for wildly different causes that nevertheless share an important similarity: The watches on offer are one-of-a-kind.
At Watches for ELA, on Nov. 9 at Christie’s in Geneva, proceeds benefit the European Leukodystrophy Association (ELA) International, which has worked since 1992 to fund medical research into leukodystrophies, rare diseases that affect the brain and spinal cord, and cause severe disabilities and early death in both children and adults.
The biennial event was launched in 2024, when the sale of 11 exceptional watches donated by watchmakers—including ArtyA, Bovet, Girard-Perregaux, Konstantin Chaykin, Louis Erard, Montblanc, Richard Mille, and Ulysse Nardin, as well as a 2005 F. P. Journe Vagabondage platinum watch consigned by a private individual—raised 843,000 Swiss francs to help fund medical research and support families of those affected by leukodystrophies.
This year’s event, to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva, features 22 watches, including unique pieces from ArtyA, Bovet, Louis Moinet, Cédric Johner, Pikullik, and Montblanc. Among the highlights is a Cartier Pasha owned by the French soccer star and coach Zinédine Zidane, a longtime supporter of ELA International. It is the first watch he bought for himself early in his professional career.
Guy Alba, president of ELA International, says he relied on friends with connections in the luxury watch world to introduce him to brands that agreed to support his cause. “We entered the world of watchmaking without any real network,” Alba tells Robb Report. “François-Henri Pinault, a long-standing friend and supporter, was the only one who believed in the potential of our initiative, but above all, in the importance of the cause and the need to raise funds to fight this terrible disease: leukodystrophy. We are also immensely fortunate to have Zinédine Zidane by our side for 25 years, dedicating a significant part of his public profile to supporting ELA.”
Zinédine Zidane’s Cartier wath.
Watches for ELA
On Dec. 5, TimeForArt returns for its third and largest edition at Phillips’s New York Watch Auction. With 26 timepieces, all unique and specially made for TimeForArt, the biennial sale benefits the Swiss Institute, a nonprofit art institution in New York City that offers free public exhibitions, programs, and educational workshops.
“Again this year the brands are really thinking of what art and design means to them, and doing something edgy or forward-looking,” Mojdeh Cutter, the Swiss Institute’s director of partnerships and TimeForArt, says. “They all took the prompts really seriously.
“Now that we’ve had two really successful sales, the third edition feels like the initiative is maturing,” she adds. “Brands are now expecting it. A lot already have an idea for future editions.”
Highlights of the 2026 sale include singular timepieces from established luxury houses such as Bulgari, Chanel, Chopard, and Hermès. The last, a first-time participant, “made a white-gold watch with an enamel dial that depicts the brand’s Faubourg HQ building in Paris in a very celebratory way,” Cutter says. “There are little animals in the building that you can see through the windows that are dancing. It’s very playful and joyful and highlights just how incredible their artisan team is.”
Hermès’s white-gold one-off.
Universal Genève consigned a piece with a handmade miniature portrait on its dial, reflecting its partnership with the estate of the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka.
Meanwhile, other brands interpreted the “time for art” theme by collaborating with contemporary artists. Geneva-based Czapek worked with the Swiss painter Guillaume Denervaud, a former artist-in-residence at the Swiss Institute. “He’s an oil painter and basically painted over a dial made from pale blue mother-of pearl,” Cutter says. “The painting work he did on the dial is extremely reminiscent of his own paintings and kind of abstract.”
Maurice Lacroix also teamed with an artist—or two. The brand worked with Ficus Interfaith, a New York City-based artistic duo founded in 2013 by painters Ryan Bush and Raphael Martinez Cohen. “They work with terrazzo,” Cutter says. “For TimeForArt, they worked with freshwater pearls, sliced them in half and had them all cast in resin for the dial. You can’t tell at first glance if it’s a painting, but it’s all these beautiful pearls, each with their own organic shapes, opalescence and color.”
Still other brands highlighted the artisanry that goes into making unique dials—among them Chopard, which submitted an Alpine Eagle with a hand-engraved white-gold dial.
Estimates range wildly, from $500 to $1,000 for a Dennison watch with a stone dial made of malachite and lapis to $80,000 to $160,000 for a Jaquet Droz model that emerged from a collaboration with a design school in Switzerland: “They had a competition with design students, who all submitted proposals for the design, and the winning student got to design the watch with the brand,” Cutter explains.
A trend among the timepieces consigned for the sale is stone dials, she says, citing a Bulgari model boasting a green marble dial, an Atelier Wen piece featuring stone dial marquetry, and a Chanel watch, estimated at $70,000 to $140,000, with a malachite dial and a flying tourbillon. “It’s really nice to see how they used the stone’s natural patterns and colors to compose the dial design and create the harmony,” Cutter says.
Yet to be unveiled but sure to generate considerable interest is a piece from the independent watchmaker Simon Brette, who teamed with the celebrated enamellist Anita Porchet.
All told, 48 one-of-a-kind watches will cross the block this season, between Geneva and New York. For collectors, that means a rare chance to acquire something truly exceptional, and do some good in the process.
Authors
Victoria Gomelsky
