8 Watches From Schumacher's Collection Are Up For Sale, Including A Unique F.P. Journe Model
Christie's auction house will auction eight watches from the collection of the famous Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher, and they could fetch millions of euros.
The watches commemorate highlights of Schumacher's career and will be put up for sale at an auction in Geneva this year on May 13.
Among them is a unique F.P. Journe Vagabondage 1 Model from 2004, a watch Schumacher received from Scuderia Ferrari team principal Jean Todt.
F.P. Journe Vagabondage
Christie's head of watches for Europe and the US, Remi Guillemin, said the watch is "probably the most important F.P. Journe Vagabondage ever made".
The platinum-cased, uniquely red-dialed watch features a gold movement and a roaming hours display that displays both Schumacher's trademark helmet and the Ferrari insignia and could fetch more than 1 million Swiss francs ($1.1 million) at auction, Guillemin said.
Another watch up for auction is an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak chronograph in white gold. It has a white dial showing Schumacher's Ferrari team emblem on a subdial, as well as six stars on another dial to mark the six Formula 1 championships Schumacher won between 1994 and 2003.
It was also given to Schumacher by Todt and has an auction estimate of between 150,000 and 250,000 francs, according to Christie's.
Schumacher, Very Sensitive To The World Of Watches
Among the eight watches Schumacher's family decided to auction is a Rolex Daytona "Paul Newman". With a black dial, the chronograph with exotic sub-dials is estimated before the auction at between 200,000 and 400,000 Swiss francs.
Recall that Michael Schumacher suffered a serious head injury skiing in France in 2013 and had retired from competition a year earlier.
According to Christie's Guillemin, throughout his career, the former German Formula 1 driver was "very sensitive to the world of watches", so he now has an extensive collection.
Schumacher was an advertising partner of Swatch Group AG's Omega brand when he won his third Formula 1 title and first with Ferrari in 2000. At the time, Omega was to issue a version of its Speedmaster Racing chronograph with Schumacher's signature on the case back.
