Temp Check – A Look at the November Watch Auctions
It’s that time of the year again, November is auction season in the watch industry. We’ve discussed at length with Paul Boutros at Phillips about the role of the auctions in the watch market. We’ve also touched on the general shift in the climate of the watch market, a return to more “normal” pricing as well as supply and demand dynamics. Today, we’re taking a look at the year end auction results to see if we can glean any market insights, especially connected to independent watchmaking.
Before we dive into our read of the auction results, let’s first walk through some of the biggest stories from this season. As always, it’s one after the other with auctions conducted by Phillips, Antiquorom, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s. This is roughly 1200 watches up for sales, all over one, four-day weekend.
The Auction Season’s Big Stories
One thing that stuck out to us, Boutros’ commentary on the auction houses increasing focus on the quality of their catalogs. This season, the auction house catalogs were loaded with exceptional timepieces.
Phillips features an extremely early Journe timepiece, the second watch ever created by the master – a Tourbillon Souverain à Remontoire d'Egalité from 1993. It broke the record set for an independent watch, surpassing the US$7.63 price that a Philippe Dufour Grande et Petite Sonnerie commanded. Including all fees, the final sale price of this Journe timepiece clocked in at CHF 7,320,000 (~US$8.2m).
Speaking to the ultra-high quality of some of this year’s lots, Phillips secured a previously unknown edition of Philippe Dufour’s Duality. Known to have only created nine timepieces, this tenth, unique piece iteration of the Duality was a surprise to insiders and collectors of indies. Unsurprisingly, the Duality sold for CHF 1,512,000 (~US$1.70m).
Other notable timepieces from the realm of independent watchmaking included one of the thinnest watches ever made, the Richard Mille UP-01 Ferrari. Purchased for CHF 1,730,000 (~US$1.95m), it’s the first time one has come to auction since its debut in 2022. Remarkably, this timepiece captured the title as the world’s thinnest watch until Konstantin Chaykin shocked the world, in the most unassuming and non-hyped ways, with the ThinKing shown at this year’s Geneva Watch Days.
One Akrivia timepiece came to auction, a stunning AK-01 Tourbillon Chronographe Monopoussoir with blue dial. Generally, Akrivia has done astoundingly well at auction throughout past appearances. On this occasion, there’s no difference. Final price with all fees, the AK-01 Tourbillon Chronographe Monopoussoir sold for over CHF 1,000,000. It’s been about five years since Rexhep Rexhepi began receiving the admiration the watchmaker deserves, and still, no shortage of optimism for the future of Akrivia.
As the trend continues, each auction house’s catalog was rife with indies. Some five years ago, it was rare to find more than a handful at a given auction. Taking only the two Phillips auctions from this month into consideration, 40 of roughly 200 lots (20%) of the catalog was composed of indies from Urwerk, De Bethune, MB&F, Richard Mille, Petermann Bedat, Sylvain Pinaud, Vianney Halter, Philippe Dufour, Daniel Roth, Akrivia, and more.
Notes on the state of the industry
It should come as no surprise that some of the most exceptional timepieces in the history of watchmaking, the second ever Journe or Dufour Duality, sold for mega prices. This has become increasingly standard. There’s little doubt that this will happen. It’s usually more of a question as to whether records will break or not. Even many established indie brands – MB&F, Urwerk, De Bethune – have come to set the standard that they often perform quite well.
What pleasantly surprised us beyond the grails and established indie brand performance, we saw serious results from a generation of newcomers. Our collaborator on one of our 5-year anniversary timepieces, Sylvain Pinaud had a terrific showing in the Phillips’ Geneva Watch Auction XX with the Origine. An incredible timepiece, at the highest end of time-only watchmaking, the Origine features beautiful movement, architecture, and dial layout. Estimated to sell between CHF 60,000-120,000, the final hammer price totaled at CHF 165,100.
Another member of this growing wave of newer talent, Petermann Bedat gave a great showing as well. The young watchmaking duo’s 1967 was estimated to sell between CHF 40,000 - 80,000. The final hammer price was CHF 215,900. Phenomenal. It is a great timepiece, amazing movement and a beautiful dial.
For us, seeing these results for young talent is a strong sign that the future of independent watchmaking is bright. Collectors recognize this talent, and join bidding to own a piece of each watchmaker’s journey from the earlier days. Good performance from established brands indicates a stable and solid market. Excellent performance from young brands gives us a lot of optimism about the market’s future growth, the arrival of more talent, and the evolution of the watch industry as a whole.