HERE is a reason why some time pieces are just timeless! 

Fine watches soared above their estimates at sales in Geneva, reflecting collectors' strong demand for exceptional pieces, auction houses said on Monday.

A pair of Patek Philippe wristwatches sold for a combined $7.3 million, each setting world records after doubling the low-end of their estimate, auction house Christie's said.

One of them, a 1949 steel timepiece that had belonged to the late wealthy American businessman and sportsman Briggs Swift Cunningham II, fetched $4.016 million.

This price makes it the second most expensive watch ever sold at auction, it said. The buyer was an unnamed Swiss private museum.

"It's also the most expensive steel watch ever sold. With today's turbulent stock markets, it is an extraordinary price, demonstrating the strength of the market for fine watches," Aurel Bacs, co-director of Christie's international watch department, said after Monday's sale.

Cunningham, who died in 2003 at the age of 96, was one of the richest men in America in his day.

An avid car racer he also won the America's Cup in 1958.

In the photograph: A rare Patek Philippe 1563 wristwatch sold off by auction house Phillips De Pury & Luxembourg for $1,593,396 on May 13, 2002. It once belonged to musician Duke Ellington

Photograph: Getty Images