One of the biggest private collections of Swatch watches in the world will go under the hammer in Hong Kong this week and is expected to fetch more than US$1.3 million.
Credited with breathing new life into the ailing Swiss watch industry after its launch in 1983, Swatch quickly became a cultural phenomenon with its multicolored plastic designs and largely affordable price tags.
The massive collection of more than 5,800 Swatch watches — including limited editions by artists including Kiki Picasso and Keith Haring, as well as a James Bond 40th anniversary collection — are to be sold as a “superlot” at Sotheby’s today.
Photo: AFP
It is the pride and joy of Luxembourg-based Paul Dunkel, 68, who has spent more than two decades tracking down almost all the watches Swatch created in its first 25 years. And it is clearly a wrench for the retired insurance broker to say goodbye to the collection.
“For me, it’s not possible to continue [collecting]. It’s so much work. The young people must continue,” he said.
“The collection was just in a safe and no one could see it, what is the point of that?” he said, adding that he hopes the buyer will put it on show to the public.
‘PASSION’
Dunkel’s obsession started in the 1980s. Already a collector of abstract art, he realized that some of his favorite artists were designing for Swatch, so he began collecting the watches and related artwork.
“It began with a few watches, then it was a passion,” he said.
Dunkel has traveled far and wide to seek out pieces and has paid thousands of euros for some. However, his favorite is a simple 1994 design covered in white sheep, with one black one tucked away on the strap. He has a tie to match.
“Swatch is universal,” Dunkel said. “You can have one for every day of the week. I often wear one.”
Dunkel added that the best reward for his years of hard work has been the reaction to the collection that has gone on display ahead of the auction.
“I’m not interested in the price. The past two months have been so satisfying, seeing the collection go around the world,” he said.
“I didn’t expect so much interest in it,” he said.
Sotheby’s head of watches, Sharon Chan, said that “serious luxury watch collectors” are also fans of Swatch.
“Each watch in this collection translates into a chapter of contemporary art,” Chan added.
Hong Kong has a precedent for successful Swatch sales — in 2011 another large collection sold for more than US$6 million to an anonymous Chinese collector at auction in the city.
FAMILY FOCUS
After the auction today, a philosophical Dunkel said his focus would switch back to family life.
“I’m a grandfather and my hobby is the two kids now,” he said.
Asked whether he will be sad to see his collection go, he shrugged, saying: “That’s life.”
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to