Phillips is putting classic sports watches under the hammer, just in time for summer

This month's quartet of flagship Geneva watch auctions yielded strong results across the board, but once more served to highlight Phillips as the market leader by a significant margin How does Phillips do it? The answer lies in its not-so-secret weapon that is the firm's association with Bacs & Russo, the vintage watch consultancy run by Aurel Bacs and his wife, Livia, who have established themselves as the go-to couple if you want to auction an interesting watch for maximum return With a string of successful themed sales under their belts since joining forces with Phillips in 2015, the pair have shown the others how to make the once dusty world of old timepieces as interesting as possible, most recently helping to establish a watch boutique at the auctioneer's London galleries.

"Phillips Perpetual" will offer "The finest collectors' timepieces", stage watch shows and be the London base of Singer Reimagined, the watch brand formed through a collaboration with the Singer Porsche car restoration firm Held alongside the eighth Phillips Hong Kong watch action, "Sports" will see more than 80 robust pieces come under the hammer in six categories entitled "Wind", "Air", "Snow", "Tarmac", "Lawn" and "Water" Advertisement The tarmac section is predictably rich in unusual chronographs, too, with a fabulous black dial Eberhard split seconds piece, again from the Forties, which is fitted with an unusual "Stop and lock" slide to prevent accidental actuation of the stop watch mechanism.

The "Water" section includes a superbly original Seiko dive watch from 1969, that carries the lowest estimate in the sale at US$4,000 - US$6,000. . Source