Christie's watch department has posted the biggest single-sale total in its history. Its Rare Watches auction in Geneva on 9 November realised CHF 47,824,592, about $58.7 million, across 218 lots at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, more than doubling the CHF 21.6 million the equivalent sale made last November.

The star consignment was a set of five F.P. Journe Ruthenium watches once owned by Formula One champion Michael Schumacher. Each of the five passed CHF 1 million, with the Tourbillon Souverain and the Chronometre a Resonance each reaching CHF 1.536 million. A matching trilogy of pink-gold Vagabondage I, II and III watches from a single collection went to one buyer for CHF 6.71 million, while a Patek Philippe ref. 1518 perpetual calendar chronograph made CHF 1.075 million and a Khanjar-signed Nautilus once given by Sultan Qaboos passed CHF 1 million.

The sale closed a remarkable weekend for Geneva's watch auctions. A day earlier, Phillips' Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV became the first live watch sale to pass $100 million, and Sotheby's added more than $32 million from its Important Watches sessions. Together the three houses generated about $203 million, underlining how much of the top end of the watch market now concentrates into a single November weekend.

Alongside the main sale, Christie's hosted the Watches for ELA charity auction, which raised $615,000 for research into leukodystrophies, a group of rare brain diseases. The 21-lot benefit was led by a Cartier Pasha once owned by footballer Zinedine Zidane, an ambassador for the charity, which sold for CHF 102,400, five times its estimate. A Cedric Johner Abyss made CHF 61,440 and a Felipe Pikullik Mondphase reached CHF 64,000, each about CHF 20,000 above its top estimate.