www.worldwatchweb.com - On 24 November 2011, the Swatch collection of Swiss businessman Peter Blum and his wife Linda was sold at auction for 51,707,500 million Hong Kong dollars (6.6 million US dollars). This was the biggest-ever auction of one single lot of Swatch timepieces.

The unprecedented sum was paid for a collection that dates back to the very beginnings of Swatch and includes over four thousand pieces, many of which are prototypes, hybrid watches or pre-production versions that never went on sale.

A lot of the prototypes come from the period before the commercial launch of Swatch in the early 1980s and are therefore extremely rare. Some of the most prized collectors pieces are prototypes developed by the American artist Keith Haring.

The sale was organised by auctioneers Phillips de Pury & Company and generated considerable interest following exhibitions of the collection in New York, London and Shanghai.

Source: Swatch