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Wrist watches are being abandoned by increasing numbers of people content to mark time with digital devices, but high-end time pieces valued more for the message they send than the time they keep are doing just fine. A rare platinum Rolex watch owned by Eric Clapton sold Monday (11/11) at a Swiss auction for $3.6 million.   The guitar great has been wheeling and dealing. Over the course of the last several months Clapton has sold a portion of his exotic gun collection for hundreds of thousands of dollars, an abstract painting by a German artist for more than $34 million and taken delivery of a custom built Ferrari it is said he paid more than $4 million for. The idea that a watch fetched nearly enough to cover the cost of the Ferrari is mind boggling.  Maybe the thought that someone just might cut your arm off to get a watch that valuable was disconcerting to EC.  It's a safe bet the watch does not have a Slowhand.
BusinessWeek.com

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