The Horological Society of New York (HSNY) has kicked off Timepieces for HSNY: 2021 Charity Auction, in partnership with the watch experts at Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, which began online on June 7 and runs through June 14. Watch collectors and enthusiasts can bid on seven one-of-a-kind timepieces, including the one we focus on today, created specifically for HSNY by Arnold & Son: a unique piece with a uniquely New York inspiration.

Arnold & Son’s Unique Piece is the only watch made specially for the HSNY Charity Auction.

Paying tribute to the HSNY, a 155-year-old institution with a mission to “preserve, enrich, and disseminate watchmaking knowledge throughout the United States,” and the dynamic metropolis where it was founded back in 1866, the unique piece has an 18k 4N rose-gold case measuring 40 mm in diameter and a modest 7.68 mm thick. Under its domed sapphire crystal, with nonreflective treatment on both its surfaces, lies a white mother-of-pearl dial with a miniature painted depiction of New York City that takes on distinctively different appearances during daytime and nighttime ? much like the Big Apple itself.
A miniature painting of NYC’s urban landscape adorns the mother-of-pearl dial.

The miniature painted dial, just a few square centimeters in size, features a vanishing-point perspective from the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, with classical, red-brick New York buildings tapering toward the center to ...