The Watches For ELA Auction returns in 2026 with a broad and unusually personal line-up, bringing together independent watchmakers, established Swiss names and one deeply sentimental celebrity-owned Cartier.
The sale supports ELA, a charity funding research into leukodystrophies, rare diseases that affect the brain and spinal cord in children and adults.
Held by Christie’s as part of its Rare Watches auction on November 9, the 2026 edition ranges from accessible unique pieces to haute joaillerie and hand-made independent watchmaking.
At a glance
- Watches For ELA 2026 will be held by Christie’s on November 9 as part of the Rare Watches auction.
- The line-up includes unique pieces, a prototype, artistic métiers d’art watches and Zinedine Zidane’s own Cartier Pasha Chronograph.
- Estimates range from CHF 1,000–2,000 for Alpina’s unique Carrée to CHF 40,000–60,000 for Boucheron and Bovet lots.
The charity auction and its 2026 shape
Watches For ELA began in 2024 as a way for watch brands to support ELA through one-off auction pieces.
The 2026 catalogue keeps that idea intact but widens the tone considerably.
There are decorative stone dials, skeletonised moonphase work, micro-painted enamel, haute joaillerie, openworked complications and a handful of watches with direct references to ELA’s visual language.
That mix is part of the appeal, because the sale isn’t simply a showcase of high estimates.
It places an Alpina rectangular automatic and a pair of Tissot PRX models in the same charitable frame as white-gold Boucheron jewellery watchmaking and Bovet’s convertible Amadeo case.
Every Watches For ELA 2026 lot
| Brand or donor | Watch | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Alpina | Alpiner Carrée Automatic unique piece with salmon copper-toned dial | CHF 1,000–2,000 |
| Pequignet | Attitude Nacre & Diamants with in-house Initial calibre | CHF 2,000–4,000 |
| Dennison | Elements for ELA with tiger’s eye, lapis, amazonite and onyx | CHF 3,000–6,000 |
| Frederique Constant | Classic Worldtimer Manufacture for ELA with diamond bezel and burgundy colour | CHF 3,000–6,000 |
| Tissot | Two PRX Powermatic 80 watches with dark green waffle dials and gold fluted bezels | CHF 3,000–6,000 |
| Kollokium | Projekt 01 for Watches For ELA with pink seconds hand and illustrated caseback | CHF 4,000–8,000 |
| Louis Erard x Wire Art | Noirmont Métiers d’Art ‘Fil d’Or’ with 2,320 gold threads | CHF 4,000–8,000 |
| Maurice Lacroix | 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde with pink ELA accents | CHF 6,000–12,000 |
| Montblanc | Iced Sea Automatic Date 0 Oxygen for ELA with ancient subfossil wood dial | CHF 8,000–16,000 |
| Artya | Luminity Timascus chronograph in TiDamas | CHF 15,000–25,000 |
| Atælier Haute Complication | Dual Time Art For ELA by Vladimir Victor Négault | CHF 15,000–25,000 |
| Gerald Charles | Maestro 2.0 Ultra-Thin Tiger’s Eye prototype | CHF 15,000–25,000 |
| Konstantin Chaykin | Seneca II titanium Wristmon | CHF 15,000–25,000 |
| Mauron Musy | Ref. MU06-115 ‘Light Of Hope’ with luminous Hope inscription | CHF 15,000–25,000 |
| Cédric Johner | Abyss for ELA with lacquer dial and hand-finished engraved movement | CHF 20,000–40,000 |
| Felipe Pikullik | Mondphase I Skeleton, the first and only skeletonised version of the model | CHF 20,000–40,000 |
| Kerbedanz | 65’27” Tree of Life with micro-painted enamel by Gezim Meta | CHF 30,000–50,000 |
| Louis Moinet | 1816 chronograph unique piece with ELA sun logo | CHF 30,000–60,000 |
| Boucheron | Ajourée Volute unique piece in white gold with 395 white diamonds | CHF 40,000–60,000 |
| Bovet | Amadeo ‘Miss Audrey ELA’ with convertible case | CHF 40,000–60,000 |
| Zinedine Zidane | Personal Cartier Pasha Chronograph in steel | Not stated |
Craft, colour and charity references
Some of the most direct ELA references are subtle rather than literal.
Kollokium’s Projekt 01 uses a pink seconds hand in reference to the charity’s signature colour, while its caseback carries a drawing by the daughter of one of Kollokium’s founders.
Maurice Lacroix also works pink into the minute track and retrograde day display of the 1975 Master Grand Date Retrograde, a watch whose openworked dial reveals the grand date mechanism at 12 o’clock.
Louis Moinet places ELA’s sun logo on the 12-hour timer at 6 o’clock of a unique 1816 chronograph, while Bovet’s Amadeo ‘Miss Audrey ELA’ uses the ELA logo as a central display motif.
Others approach the brief through material character.
Dennison’s Elements for ELA gathers tiger’s eye, lapis, amazonite and onyx into a single stone-dial composition, building on the revived brand’s focus on mineral dials.
Montblanc’s Iced Sea Automatic Date 0 Oxygen for ELA goes in a different direction with a dial made from ancient subfossil wood taken from the Mer de Glace on the Mont Blanc massif.
Artya’s Luminity Timascus brings a louder material statement, using a 43mm TiDamas case thermally treated to reveal blue, purple and orange tones.
Independent watchmaking takes a strong position
The independent names give the sale much of its horological texture.
Felipe Pikullik has created the first and only Mondphase I Skeleton, a skeletonised version of his spherical moonphase and the final Mondphase I in the 40-piece series.
Cédric Johner’s Abyss for ELA leans into traditional handcraft with a lacquer dial and a hand-finished movement engraved with a neuron-inspired flower motif.
The watch is described as being made without CNC machines or computer-assisted design, which gives it a very different proposition from the more industrially polished lots.
Louis Erard x Wire Art’s Noirmont Métiers d’Art ‘Fil d’Or’ is another technical curiosity, using a microelectronics-derived technique in which 2,320 golden threads are woven through the dial.
Those threads form an isometric cube motif, a recurring visual code in Louis Erard’s artistic watches.
Atælier Haute Complication’s Dual Time Art For ELA, created by Vladimir Victor Négault, uses the Architecture Mecanique No. 1 as a base and presents central hours and minutes above a window for a rotating second time zone.
Konstantin Chaykin’s Seneca II, meanwhile, brings the watchmaker’s familiar Wristmon language to a 40mm titanium case, with the Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca rendered as a playful face on the dial.
Zidane’s Cartier adds a personal note
The most human lot in the sale may be the least technically exotic.
Zinedine Zidane, an ELA ambassador, is donating his personal Cartier Pasha Chronograph in steel, described as his first wristwatch.
Speaking about the donation, Zidane said, “In this edition of Watches For ELA, my contribution is very simple: I’m donating a watch that I’ve had for 35 years. I felt it was important to offer something dear to me, an object with a history and genuine sentimental value.”
That kind of provenance sits outside the usual auction calculus of rarity, finishing and complication.
It’s a reminder that charitable watch auctions work best when the object carries both horological interest and a reason to care beyond the watch itself.
For collectors, the 2026 Watches For ELA auction offers a rare spread of one-off pieces and personal history, but its clearest purpose remains the one that started the project in the first place: raising funds for research into leukodystrophies.
