Auctions: Now’s Your Chance To Own The Pope’s Swatch

By Anthony Traina

It’s not every day – or really ever – that you see the Pope’s personal watch come up for auction. In fact, you could say that about many of the watches at Wright Auction’s “Once Upon A Time Watch Project” in support of The Brian LaViolette Scholarship Foundation. Also included in this charity watch auction, running now through November 30, are watches from well-known figures like Randall Park, Kenny Rogers, former Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, Condoleeza Rice, and Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby; but the headliner is Pope Francis’ personal Swatch.

For those more ingrained in the watch world, there are also a number of picks from other watcherati (hat tip to a commenter for using this hilarious term on an article the other day) and folks that might be famous in their own right, but are more famous in this particular circle for being watch collectors (and even stars of Talking Watches episodes): Aly & AJ, Ronny Chieng, and Randall Park, among others.

Brian LaViolette, the charity’s namesake, was a young kid growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who started wearing his first watch at just four years old. By the time he was 15, he already had a collection of seven watches. Tragically, Brian died in a swimming accident in 1992. His family, led by Kim and Doug LaViolette, vowed to make the most of a terrible tragedy, eventually starting the Brian LaViolette Scholarship Foundation to award college scholarships to kids from across the world, from Wisconsin to South Africa. In 2022, the foundation gave out 55 scholarships; since its beginning, it has awarded a total of more than 1,000 scholarships. All proceeds from The Watch Project will support the Scholarship Foundation’s efforts.

The auction actually came about via another watch-loving Wisconsinite, gentleman dealer Eric Wind. Doug, Brian’s dad, reached out to Wind more than a year ago with the idea of an auction building on Brian’s early interest in watches. Charity watch auctions are nothing new, but this one is exciting because it sources many of its donations from collectors. There are a handful of donations from brands, too – we’ll highlight some, below – but it’s …read more