At the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction on 9 and 10 May 2026, lot 24 is an Agassiz pocket watch with a polychrome cloisonn\u00e9 enamel world time dial depicting Joan of Arc, dedicated on the caseback to General Charles de Gaulle and dated 1939\u20131945. It is one of four unique pieces commissioned in 1945 to mark the Allied victory in World War II, each gifted to one of the four principal statesmen who led that victory. Understanding what this watch is \u2014 and why it occupies a category almost entirely its own \u2014 requires tracing both its historical context and its technical construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project did not originate with a brand or a retailer. It was initiated by a group of Geneva citizens, led by Ernest Baumann, who wanted to mark the end of the war with a tangible, lasting gift. They tasked Agassiz with execution. Louis Cottier \u2014 the Geneva watchmaker who had devised the world time complication in 1931 and refined it with a day\/night indication in the late 1930s and early 1940s \u2014 was among the group. The choice of complication was deliberate: the world time mechanism reflected both the global scale of the conflict and the idea of modernity, since the complication was itself barely a decade old at the time of the commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cottier began work officially in August 1945, with a deadline of 30 November. The watches were delivered as Christmas gifts that same year. Each of the four pieces was made for one of the principal Allied leaders: Harry Truman received a dial depicting the Statue of Liberty, with an olive-branch hour hand; Joseph Stalin received a depiction of a worker before a steel mill, with a five-pointed star as the hour hand; Winston Churchill was honoured with St. George slaying the dragon, the hour hand a trident. The present piece, made for Charles de Gaulle, depicts Joan of Arc \u2014 the patron saint of France \u2014 planting a staff on a shore, with a sailboat and a warship visible in the distance. The hour hand and the tip of Joan of Arc’s staff both bear the Cross of Lorraine, the emblem of Free France during the Resistance. A fifth object \u2014 a world time clock rather than a pocket watch \u2014 was gifted to Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of Franklin D. Roosevelt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The polychrome cloisonn\u00e9 enamel dials were executed by Michel Deville, working for Maison Stern. Cloisonn\u00e9 enamel is among the most demanding techniques in decorative horology: thin metal wires (cloisons) are laid onto a metal base to form the outlines of a design, and each cell is then filled with powdered enamel and fired repeatedly at high temperature. The Stern archives document that multiple designs and techniques were explored before the final versions were approved, which underlines the scale of the effort invested in these four objects. For de Gaulle’s piece, the final choice was a polychrome composition \u2014 meaning multiple enamel colours \u2014 which adds further complexity to an already exacting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reverse of all four watches shares the same central motif: a large letter V \u2014 for Victory \u2014 superimposed on a map of the globe. The engraving was executed by master engraver Edgar Maerky. What differentiates each piece on the back is the personal dedication. The present watch reads: 1939 \u2014 General Charles De Gaulle \u2014 1945<\/em>. The French import marks visible on this piece are a detail of particular significance: they confirm that this is the watch that entered France, consistent with its attribution to de Gaulle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entire commission was conducted under strict confidentiality. Even the casemaker, Wenger, was not informed of the identities of the intended recipients. This level of operational secrecy, applied to a horological commission, is itself historically unusual and reflects the political sensitivity of the moment in which these watches were made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each of the four watches is unique by definition \u2014 no two share the same dial subject, dedication, or hour hand form. The present piece is offered in superb condition, which, given that it was made in 1945 and has an established chain of provenance traceable to de Gaulle himself, places it in an exceptionally small group of objects where historical importance and physical integrity coincide. Very few artifacts of this period \u2014 in any collecting category \u2014 can claim both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sole auction precedent for a direct comparison is the Churchill piece from the same set of four. On 22 September 2015, Sotheby’s sold that watch \u2014 the world time pocket watch gifted to Winston Churchill, with its St. George and the dragon cloisonn\u00e9 enamel dial and trident hour hand \u2014 for \u00a3485,000. That result, achieved a decade ago, establishes a floor rather than a ceiling: the market for historically significant watches has moved substantially since 2015, and the de Gaulle piece carries French import marks that provide an additional layer of documentary provenance. The two watches are structurally identical in their construction \u2014 same Cottier movement, same Wenger case, same Maerky-engraved caseback \u2014 and differ only in their dial subject and personal dedication. Whether the market assigns a premium to one recipient over the other is a question the May 2026 sale will answer, but the 2015 Sotheby’s result makes clear that the set commands serious money even outside the current auction climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The comparisons that come to mind when assessing the historical weight of this object are not drawn from horology alone. A watch made for and gifted to one of the four commanders of the Allied victory in the most destructive conflict in recorded history sits closer, in terms of what it represents, to objects like instruments associated with figures of comparable historical magnitude. Within watchmaking specifically, there is no direct parallel beyond the Churchill piece: world time pocket watches by Agassiz with Cottier movements appear occasionally at auction \u2014 Phillips itself offered a 1935 Agassiz world time pair in its Decade One sale with an estimate starting at CHF 20,000 \u2014 but those are production pieces in varying condition. Lot 24 is categorically different: unique, documented from the Stern archives, bearing a personal dedication to a head of state, and in superb condition after eight decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phillips Geneva on 9 and 10 May 2026 will effectively be the first time the market is asked to price this specific piece, with the 2015 Sotheby’s result for the Churchill watch serving as the only meaningful reference point. The world time complication, the cloisonn\u00e9 enamel execution, the Cottier mechanism, the provenance, and the condition each represent a distinct layer of value. Taken together, they make lot 24 one of the most consequential objects to appear at auction in the watch category \u2014 not just in the 2026 season, but across the discipline’s recorded history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four watches made for four victors At the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction on 9 and 10 May 2026, lot 24 is an Agassiz pocket watch with a polychrome cloisonn\u00e9 enamel world time dial depicting Joan of Arc, dedicated on the caseback to General Charles de Gaulle and dated 1939\u20131945. It is one of four unique […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-categorise"],"yoast_head":"\nSecrecy as a condition of production<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Condition and rarity as compounding factors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Churchill watch: the only direct market comparison<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Where this watch stands in the broader canon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What the auction will test<\/h3>\n\n\n\n