A cocktail of 911s and watches
MLG brings together the best of Porsche and Rolex
It has become a truism that classic automobiles and mechanical chronographs go together like a horse and carriage, so it’s little wonder that auction houses around the world frequently stage sales that combine the two – and now the Monaco Legend Group is set to exploit the fortuitous coincidence that 2018 marks the anniversaries of both one of the most collectable of all sports cars and one of the most highly coveted watches.
The car is the Porsche 911 and the watch is the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, an example of which currently holds the record for being the most expensive wristwatch ever sold after a much-publicised example that once belonged to Paul Newman fetched $17.8m at Phillips last year.
It’s unlikely that MLG will be able to match that, but there should still be some strong prices at the 55-lot themed sale in which Porsche 911s and Cosmographs dating from 1963 to 2017 will cross the block.
Among the car highlights will be a 1970 2.5ST that was delivered new to Porsche Sonauto in Poitiers, France before being raced by Claude Ballot-Lena in major events such as the 1971 and 1972 Tour de France. The car won the 1972 French GT Championship, placed sixth in that year’s European GT Championship and was then sold back to Sonauto, after which it became the ’74 season practice car of champion endurance racer and rally driver Guy Chasseuil.
It’s tipped to realise €1.1-1.6m, while one of the star watch lots is set to be the Cosmograph awarded to Christophe Bouchut for winning the ‘Rolex 24 At Daytona’ in 1995. Offered in what appears to be mint condition, it will be sold complete with its box, certificate and instruction manual. Expect it to fetch more than €50,000.