The 5th Edition of the ONLYWATCH Tour Swings Through Shanghai!

We buy watches for many different reasons: Sometimes we buy them because we love their designs and engineering. Sometimes it’s because we love their status and exclusivity. We buy watches to mark special occasions – even if that occasion is just “today was a good day!” ONLYWATCH presents us with a unique opportunity to combine all of those reasons with the chance to contribute to charity.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a disease effecting one in 3,500 young boys. At first it compromises their ability to run and jump and play – forcing them to use braces and wheelchairs. Very sadly, the prognosis is far bleaker as the disease takes hold; few victims live to adulthood. As the disease progresses it causes fatal heart and lung problems. There are no real treatments and there is no cure.

The Association Monégasque Contre les Myopathies has teamed up with auction house Antiquorum and some of the most exclusive brands in the watch industry to host an event to raise money to fund research aimed at curing this disease. Each of the watchmakers represented has prepared an unique piece for the charity to auction off on September 28th, 2013 at the Hôtel Hermitage Monaco – with the Monaco Yacht Show as it’s backdrop.

A tour of the 33 watches began at the end of August in Tokyo, circulating to Singapore, Hong Kong with a two-day exhibition here in Shanghai before moving on to Beijing and New York. I got to take a peek at the installation afterhours.

Patek Philippe presented an incredibly attractive and sporty version of the 5004, dubbed the 5004T – a Perpetual Calendar, Split-Second chronograph.

Bell & Ross presented SIX unique pieces, displayed in a highly polished rosewood case. Each piece is designed to represent an instrument found in the cockpit of an aircraft and the overall effect in the presentation box is very much evocative of the flight deck of an aircraft.

Frequently found on the pages of Monochrome, Girard Perregaux presented a black ceramic Chrono Hawk fitted with a palladium bezel and an eye-catching honeycomb dial offset by a brilliant red color scheme.

If you fancy something less sporty and more elegant, than Vacheron Constantin’s Patrimony Traditionnelle WorldTime or Laurent Ferrier’s Galet Classic Tourbillon Double Spiral might just fit the bill.

More ‘out there’ are Piaget’s Altiplano Automatic Skeleton and La Monégasque Automatic Tourbillon by Roger Dubuis. The same goes for Chopard’s entry, being a gorgeous classic tourbillon with an 8-day power reserve, called L.U.C Tourbillon. Slightly more sporty is Montblanc’s entry of a black/gold Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours. In the flesh it looks just brilliant!

You can catch the exhibition at Antiquorum in Geneve from the 20th to the 23rd of September before moving on to its terminus at the Hotel Hermitage Monaco. Very rarely if ever do I take sides in which watch to buy or how much to spend. In this instance I will step across the line to say that if you are in the market for something special – please consider participating in the ONLYWATCH auction.

100% of all proceeds raised will go towards funding the scientific research that will hopefully eradicate this dreadful disease. 

Click here to visit the Only Watch website, where you can find a digital auction catalog. Starting from page 108 you can find out how to bid, even if you’re not able to be present in Monaco yourself. Here’s a list of estimates for all watches to be auction on September 28th.