Marcus Margulies has sold his world-renowned collection of vintage Audemars Piguet watches having spent 27 years collecting the most significant private collection in the world.
The collection, which includes pieces dating from the 1890s to the 1990s, has been sold in its entirety to Audemars Piguet and will become part of the brand’s museum collection in Le Brassus.
François-Henry Bennahmias, Chief Executive Officer of Audemars Piguet, added: “We are delighted to welcome these vintage pieces back home. It represents a great milestone for the heritage department and a huge contribution to our patrimony. Marcus Margulies is very happy, as he has always believed that the right home for the collection was with the factory in Le Brassus.”
Margulies, who owns watch brands Sekonda, Accurist and Limit as well as the Marcus boutique on London’s Bond Street and Almar in Burlington Arcade, might well be credited as one of the most significant figures behind the revival of the mechanical watch.
Among this collection is a renowned ultra-complicated pocket watch no 6142, called the “Universelle”. Louis Elisée Piguet first worked on the ebauche and then Audemars Piguet finished the movement and delivered it in 1899 to the company Union Glashutte in Dresden who cased, signed and sold the watch.
Jasmine Audemars, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, said: “This acquisition is the most important in the history of the Audemars Piguet Heritage collection thanks to the incredible quality of the pieces representing a high concentration of major historical achievements for the brand.”
