Paul Iribe's Breguet watch may see $30,000 at Bonhams

Bonhams has announced that it will offer a Breguet pocket watch made for Paul Iribe, a French designer and Coco Chanel's one-time lover, as part of its Fine Watches and Wristwatches auction in London on June 11.

Breguet Pocket watch Paul Iribe
The watch was sold to Iribe in the year that he collaborated with Chanel - was this a gift between the two lovers?



The watch, an 18-carat gold open face automatic Breguet, will sell with a £15,000-20,000 ($23,000-30,000) estimate. It was sold to Iribe in 1933, the year that he collaborated with Chanel on an extravagant jewellery collection.

Iribe (1883-1935) is best known for his political caricatures, which were published in Parisian journals and satirical newspapers of the day.

He then spent a number of years working on Hollywood film sets, becoming known as a leading influence in art deco style.

Iribe returned to Paris in the 1920s, where he met the internationally renowned Coco Chanel. Together they collaborated on the Bijoux de Diamantes collection, which was commissioned by the International Guild of Diamond Merchants.

They also embarked on an affair, which is widely attributed as the cause of Iribe's split from his second wife, heiress Maybelle Hogan, in 1928. Much of Iribe's subsequent work is filled with likenesses of Coco Chanel re-imagined as Marianne - the French symbol of freedom.

Breguet leads the sale with its Hora Mundi Classique, a fine 18-carat rose gold wristwatch, providing the second highest bids at £22,000-28,000 ($33,500-42,500).

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