While The Big Pilot Watch from Swiss luxury timepiece brand IWC Shaffhausen is unique in its own right, there was something extra special about the watch they recently auctioned off for charity through Sotheby’s.
First off, Bradley Cooper wore it for this year’s Academy Awards. Second, there’s a one-of-a-kind engraving stating “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”––a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book, The Little Prince. Both of these factors contributed to the impressive selling price the two organizations brought in for the watch. And all of the proceeds are going to charity.
That charity is the watch brand’s own Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation––an organization based in Nice, France aimed at teaching visually-impaired children how to read drawings using the sense of touch. Along the same goal, IWC also created the very first tactile art book, which manifests as a copy of The Little Prince with embossed illustrations. The hope is that these textured pieces of art will help visually-impaired children better learn how to draw.
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On March 4, the watch was sold to a winning bidder offering $60,000. “I am happy to see that the auction of the Big Pilot’s Watch during the Oscars received so much attention,” said IWC Schaffhausen CEO Christoph Grainer-Herr. “Thanks to the generosity of the buyer, the Association Arrimage can continue their important and impactful projects for visually-impaired children and teenagers.”
