The watch market continues to be dominated by Rolex in the UK, at least in the £3000-£35,000 range. Above that level, we are getting into Patek collecting and above that, well..the bejewelled one-offs, the quirky historical pieces, prototypes or the stuff Steve McQueen or other celebs once owned.

In that rare class Philippe Dufour watches have their fans, like the Sultan of Brunei for example. The 18K gold watch that the Sultan once blew his weekly pocket money on recently sold for over $7m -a allegedly – in a private deal. Dufour started out as a boy apprentice in the 60s at JLC and worked for AP as well, he now creates unique, hand-crafted timepieces that take about 2000 hours to build, test and finish to an impeccable standard.

So, a public auction held by Phillips this November will test Dufour fandom, with four models available. There’s one full size pocket watch and three wristwatches including the Duality and the Simplicity.

They may not have the bling of a Hublot Big Bang, or the crazy engineering of a Urwerk, but Dufour watches are really an exposition on Breguet and Mudge, a personal quest within the art of watchmaking. That’s what makes them interesting.

Given that the super rich have got even wealthier during lockdown and the biggest transfer of assets from the poor, to the rich, is continuing at pace with the climate change scam being the latest excuse to asset-strip and tax the working/middle class, we see no reason why these Dufour watches should not break records.

Perfect for your humidity-resistant, earthquake proof bunker on a private island we reckon.

More at the Phillips site.