On Dec. 7 and 8, the auctioneer Phillips will offer a watch that carries the highest estimate ever assigned to a timepiece at its New York gallery—higher, even, than the Rolex Daytona that belonged to Paul Newman and earned $17 million when it hit the block at Phillips back in October 2017.

The piece carries a $2 million estimate, but it isn’t another Rolex, nor is it a Patek Philippe, the two brands that have dominated auction results since the start of the mechanical watchmaking renaissance in the late 1980s. Neither does it sport a meaningful amount of bling. Rather, the piece is by an independent watchmaker—arguably the finest in the world.

“It is perhaps the most important Philippe Dufour that’s ever been offered,” Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of watches in the Americas at Phillips, tells Robb Report.

Indeed, the star lot of the Phillips’s New York sale reflects a burgeoning shift among serious watch collectors, away from blue-chip brands and toward rarefied independent makers.

But first, some context: In 1992, Dufour introduced the first wristwatch to ever feature a grand and petite sonnerie, a holy grail of complications. “It really put him on the map and helped secure his reputation as one of the world’s best watchmakers,” Boutros says.

Four years later, Dufour unveiled the Duality, and four years after that, the Simplicity, two models that further cemented his status as a horological maestro. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that in the process, he reshaped the watchmaking landscape. With a lifetime production that totals about 250 timepieces, Dufour has inspired scores of independent makers to follow in his footsteps in the years since.

“His impact on modern watchmaking is huge—that’s why he’s so sought after,” Boutros says.

The grand and petite sonnerie watches are the rarest of Dufour’s creations—just eight pieces made over the course of decades. “The one we’re offering was made in 2016. It’s the second to last piece he made and the most complicated,” Boutros says.

What’s more: It’s a piece unique that combines the two most sought-after elements of his grand and petite sonnerie: a sapphire crystal dial that provides a glimpse of the movement (featured on just three of the eight versions he made, according to Boutros) and an elaborate half-hunter case, “where you can flip open the case back to reveal the movement,” Boutros says.

The case has two switches on its side to activate the modes of the two chiming complications. (In the pieces that have the simpler, more traditional case type as opposed to the half hunter case, the mode switches are located on the bezel.) The fact that the piece being sold by Phillips features an open dial, is the only one with a hinged caseback, is completely fresh to market, was consigned to the house by its original owner, and marks the first time an open dial grand and petite sonnerie comes to market all help explain why it carries an estimate in excess of $2 million, Boutros says.

“In the grand scheme of things, the market [for independents] is still very small, but when something exceptional like this comes to market, it is an event,” he adds. “We’re putting this on the cover of our catalog on its own to signify its importance.”

The growing appreciation for independent watchmaking is rivaled only by a parallel rise in demand for timepieces that prioritize art and design over more traditional horological pursuits such as precision-focused timekeeping. Look to the 25 one-off timepieces featured in the second edition of TimeForArt, a biennial charity sale taking place Dec. 7, also at Phillips New York gallery, to raise money for the Swiss Institute, a nonprofit art institution in New York City.

“It’s really exciting when you go to an artist or to an artisan and a watchmaker and you ask them, ‘What is the most exciting project for you or what does creativity mean?’” Stefanie Hessler, the director of the institute, tells Robb Report.

The mix of watches at TimeForArt reflects the many ways in which horology can be viewed as art. In some cases—as with Biver, Louis Erard, Maurice Lacroix, Ressence, and Zenith—the brands have teamed with fine artists to create original works specially designed for the dials of their timepieces. In other examples, brands—such as Chanel, Chopard, Czapek and Toledano & Chan—have plumbed their own artisanal capabilities to create pieces that lie at the intersection of art and science.

To Boutros, the growing interest in unusual timepieces, as opposed to predictably bankable models, is another example of how the market is maturing.

“As more people collect watches today, the number of collectors that have come into the world of watches has increased tremendously,” Boutros says. “There are people who want things that are off the beaten track, who want watches that speak to them, that more normal or ‘safe’ watches don’t. There is a desire for different.”

To satisfy that desire, many are looking to the 1980s and ’90s—so much so that Phillips Geneva has created a whole event around such pieces. Dubbed Reloaded: The Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking, A Thematic Auction Celebrating Horological Masterpieces from 1980-1999, the Nov. 8 sale includes “the first and possibly only Rainbow Daytona made in the 1990s,” Boutros says, not to mention nostalgic pieces like “an IWC Da Vinci perpetual calendar chronograph in a white ceramic and 18-karat yellow-gold case from the 1980s (it’s wild),” and a prototype version of a world time watch by Blancpain.

“Blancpain in the ’80s was run by Jean-Claude Biver and he was doing some great things,” Boutros says. “He was making minute repeater watches in the 1980s, and probably made one world time watch in that era and we’re offering it in this sale. And nobody knew it existed.”

The goal, according to Boutros, is to shine a light on rare watches that may not have been commercial successes at the time they were introduced but deserve greater recognition among today’s more sophisticated buyers.

“It’s tough to say if this will cause a tipping point, where the masses flock to ’80s and ’90s watches. I do think it’s an area with room for growth. Looking back, there are some really great classic designs that have stood the test of time, are still attractively priced and offer something new to focus on for collectors.”