Philippe Dufour Duality

One of the ten Dufour Dualities ever made has surfaced and you can’t expect us not to point this out. What’s interesting here is that it’s on the market at all, but more on that later. While renown primarily for his superhuman finishing ability, Philippe Dufour first built his name in complication (much like Rexhep) and two world firsts (unlike Rexhep). That’s how he got anyone to care about his work in the first place. Where there are, very roughly, 250 Simplicities out in the world, there are 18 complicated Dufours. Full stop, 18. 8 Grande et Petite Sonneries, 10 Dualities. If independent watchmaking had pantheon, these 18 watches would be at the oculus.

After an employee at AP smashed one of his early works made for AP by accident whilst getting out of a car, Dufour branched out on his own, vowing to never make a watch for someone else’s brand. He adapted the Grande et Petite Sonnerie pocket watch complication to wristwatch size for the first time ever. Then came the difficult second album. This Duality was that follow-up, the world’s first dual-balance wristwatch. FP Journe’s Resonance came a few years later, but where that captures resonant effects, the Duality’s hearts are linked by a differential which calculates an average. The 21-component differential here is on the seconds wheel, which is a far more trying and difficult architecture to make than differentials on the centre wheel, which we’ve seen follow this work. For example MB&F, in the LM2, were heavily inspired by the Duality but learned this lesson. In fact, this delicate architecture proved so difficult that while Dufour had initially planned on making 25, he called it at 10.

There are 4 large results for Dualities. In 2007, someone did very well to pick one up at 150K US. The next result came a decade later in 2017, where you were now looking at 915K. But then the independent watch world collectively gasped when 1 of 3 made in pink gold, the first to surface, hammered for 4M. Since, the most recent platinum result has ascended to 2M. This example comes in under the most recent hammer, which isn’t always the case. Granted, that auction one had two dials which is a bit unusual. In any event, we don’t get to talk about early Philippe Dufour but once per year, and it’s always a treat. This is like seeing the Mona Lisa at Sotheby’s or something. Words like significant and the values attached to the watch are meaningless; it’s pure art. You just have to hope the sale helps everyone understand the early years of independent watchmaking and how many people have been moved or inspired by Dufour’s work.

This example looks lightly to moderately worn, but not refinished, which I quite like. The platinum has hairlines, but that’s about it. And it’s honest. It’s been recently serviced by Dufour. It’s magnificent.