Arguably the world’s most celebrated independent watchmaker, Dufour forged a reputation as a horological wizard in 1992 on the strength of a single groundbreaking timepiece: the first wristwatch to feature a grand and petite sonnerie. Beyond the complexity involved in combining, in a single wristwatch, two chiming complications—one that strikes the hour and quarter-hour (a grand sonnerie) with another that strikes only the hour (a petite sonnerie)—the model continues to inspire awe among connoisseurs because of its extreme rarity.
Dufour made just eight of the minute repeating watches over the course of decades, including three highly sought-after versions featuring a sapphire crystal dial. In early December, one of those sapphire dial models, a unique, previously unknown Grande & Petite Sonnerie, sold at Phillips’ New York watch auction for $3,960,000, nearly $2 million above its estimate.
From the article by Allen Farmelo, Paige Reddinger, Victoria Gomelsky, Oren Hartov, Blake Buettner
