GENEVA: Eight watches belonging to auto racing icon Michael Schumacher sold Tuesday for nearly 4 million Swiss francs ($4.4 million) at a Geneva auction.
The top piece in the sale, organized by Schumacher’s family, was a watch given to the German racing superstar by former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt as a Christmas present in 2004. The hammer came down at a price of 1.2 million francs, or 1.5 million including the buyer’s commission.
That was well within the pre-sale estimate range of 1-2 million francs.
The custom-made platinum timepiece from F.P. Journe, the Vagabondage 1, features 18-carat white gold, a red watch face and images of a Ferrari logo, Schumacher’s racing helmet and a “7” — to honor his seven World Championship victories.
Remi Guillemin, head of watches for Europe and the Americas for auction house Christie’s, declined to identify the buyer, but said that five watches in the Ruthenium collection — a boxed set — were purchased by the same buyer.
While most of the eight watches sold within the pre-sale estimates, an Audemars Piguet featuring a Ferrari prancing horse emblem, sold for a hammer price of 330,000 francs — well above the top of the expected range at 250,000.
The sale of Schumacher watches, which garnered a total of more than 3.1 million francs at the hammer price, was timed for the 30th anniversary of his first Formula One Drivers Championship win in 1994.
The watches, which were taken to New York and Taipei for showings before the sale, were part of a larger auction of luxury timepieces to go under the hammer on Tuesday at Christie’s in Geneva.
Schumacher, who retired from F1 in 2012, shares the record for most F1 titles with British driver Lewis Hamilton.
In December the following year, Schumacher fell while skiing in the French Alpine resort of Meribel and suffered a near-fatal brain injury.
Since being transferred from hospital in September 2014, he continues to be cared for privately at a family home in Switzerland.

TABUK: Saudi driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German co-driver Timo Gottschalk cruised to an emphatic victory in the Tabuk Toyota Rally and the Saudi extended his lead in the 2024 Saudi Toyota Championship on Saturday.

The Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux drivers had no problems on the final 168 km selective section and secured a winning margin of 16 minutes 37 seconds.

“It was good for us,” said Al-Rajhi. “It was not easy, very tricky actually. We have good stages in Saudi now. Before it was flat, flat and now it is more technical with good navigation and you need to focus all the time. Now we look ahead to Baja Greece.”

Dania Akeel and Stephane Duple continued to flourish in the Ultimate category with the second of the Toyota Hiluxes and finished second overall, despite getting lost on the stage for several minutes.

“We had a good day except we lost around four minutes in navigation, that is part of the game,” Akeel said. “Other than that, we had a good day. The stage was narrow and quite twisty and that was good for me to get used to the car, I would love to race this car every day. We will see, I want to develop as a driver as much as I can.”

Saleh Al-Saif and Qatari co-driver Nasser Al-Kuwari rounded off the podium places and topped the Challenger standings in their Dark Horse OT3.

MX Ride Dubai’s Mohammed Al-Balooshi continued his superb run of form in Middle East regional events with the fastest time on the final stage that confirmed another victory for the Emirati on his Husqvarna.

He beat local KTM rider Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera by nearly 15 minutes on the final stage to snatch the win by 27 minutes 45 seconds, his cause helped further when the Saudi rider incurred a time penalty.

“I’m really happy, so pumped with this win. The task was difficult (but) not impossible,” Al-Balooshi said. “I really put my head down, stayed focused and I needed more than two minutes, I got a lot more than that. I am really happy to defend this title in Tabuk, I really like all the races in Saudi Arabia. Abdulhalim (Al-Mogheera) really kept me on my toes. He is progressing well.”

There was a nail-biting finish to the battle in the quads with Haitham Al-Tuwaijri managing to snatch the victory on his Yamaha Raptor from rivals Hani Al-Noumesi and Abdulaziz Al-Shayban. The Saudi’s winning margin was just 25 seconds.

The Saudi Toyota Championship continues with the Qassim Rally from October 23 to 26.