Geneva Spring Auction Season May 2011

May 20, 2011

I just returned home from Geneva where I attended the three major watch auctions of Antiquorum, Sotheby's, and Christie's. The results were excellent with combined totals of three auctions at about $44 million dollars.

Antiquorum was large auction which included 579 lots that sold for an aggregate $8.7million with a diversity of watches and clocks from antique, vintage, and modern. They had an extensive mid-century clock collection which included many rare pieces by Hermes and Jaeger-LeCoultre, most of which fetched prices over their auction estimates. They also featured a fantastic collection of Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso's, from vintage to modern, where many steel examples brought well over 20,000 Swiss Francs (or about $23,000). This is a phenomenal result considering most of them are on the market for $5,000 to $10,000. Maybe this is a new market.....?

Sotheby's was a smaller auction including only 280 lots, but it brought a hair more than Antiquorum with an aggregate $8.8 million. With their strong Rolex Paul Newman results in their auction last November, this sale was loaded with 24 vintage Daytona's in both steel and gold. Many of the pump pusher Paul Newman have fetched $90,000 to $115,000, which is about 40% over the current market. Again, they featured the rare Rolex Oyster "RCO" Paul Newman which brought more than $230,000, a totally amazing price!

Again, Christie's stole the show with 394 lots and selling a whopping 23.4 million Swiss Francs (or roughly $26.5 million). As always, they had a beautiful selection of vintage complicated Patek Philippe pocket and wristwatches. The highlight of the auction was a Patek Philippe 18 white gold cushion one button chronograph made in 1928 that brought 3,235,000 Swiss Francs (about $3.7 million). There were many other complicated vintage Patek wristwatches that brought more than 300,000 Swiss Francs. On the Rolex side, a mint condition vintage Rolex "lightning-bolt" Milgauss brought more than 140,000 Swiss Francs (about $160,000). The Rolex split seconds chronograph brought over 1,035,000 Swiss Francs (about $1.17 million), which is the highest price ever paid for a Rolex at auction.