Pablo Picasso and his mysterious watches
Pablo Picasso photographed with the Patek Philippe ref. 2497
With Pablo Picasso's Michael Z. Berger watch having just sold at auction for over $250,000, we wanted to take a look back at the timepieces he owned and those that remain mysterious.
Pablo Picasso (full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso) is a Spanish artist born in 1881. His father, a drawing teacher, taught his son from a young age. Pablo studied at La Llotja in Barcelona and at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. In the early 20th century, he was known for his Blue Period, which emphasized the color blue in his paintings between 1901 and 1904, inspired by his trip to Paris, which he frequented at the time. This period was followed by a Rose Period and a very famous Cubist period.
The last watch discovered to have belonged to Pablo Picasso was a 17-jewel, hand-wound Michael Z. Berger dress watch, believed to date from the 1960s. Many believe that he wore this Michael Berger watch when he was painting, and it is rumored that he owned two others, of which there are photographs. These watches were supposedly given to his chauffeur, but their current whereabouts are unknown.
This watch stands out from the other more conventional watches he is said to have owned. The dial spells out his name using the letters as markers. His 12-letter name, "Pablo Picasso," fits perfectly, a style not seen often, especially these days.
Pablo gave this watch to his friend and fellow artist Lela Kanellopoulou, a Greek sculptor. They had met at the Cashiers d'Art, and one day in the late 1960s, Kanellopoulou describes Pablo taking the watch off his wrist and giving it to her, along with a ceramic of his wife's.
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