The performances are enough to make you dizzy.
The high point of the auction season, the watch auctions in early November in Geneva posted hyperbolic results at the end of the auction.
More than 32 million euros in total for the Christie's house, which will have sold all its lots, including 13 at more than one million euros.
A few steps away, Phillips will have recorded under the hammer of Aurel Bacs, its star auctioneer at the origin of the watch department of the house, no less than 45 million euros.
Here too 100% of the lots have flown away into the secrecy of prized collectors and some will be landmarks for the amounts reached.
In the running, the A. Lange & Söhne, but above all one of the George Daniels which flew away for more than 4 million euros.
Second breath
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RM 56-01 sapphire watch, Richard Mille.
Sold for €3,709,069 at Christie's Geneva.
Christie's / Photo press
If Aurel Bacs likes to recall that at auction, as on the stock market, it is the actors who set the prices, the new feats achieved by the vintage watch market border on speculative madness.
As Alexandre Ghotbi, Director of Phillips Watchmaking in Europe and the Middle East, points out: "The performances of the past few days not only celebrate independent watchmaking, but also testify to the community's devouring appetite for rare watches that bear witness to watchmaking history".
Because if the legends of Rolex or Audemars Piguet still fascinate, it is indeed very precise and more contemporary examples that soar to the peaks.
Anything related to Richard Mille or FP Journe, of course (two big names in
highly visible contemporary watchmaking) but also more atypical examples such as this A.Lange & Söhne in magnetic black.
With the windows of the big houses remaining desperately empty in the face of (increasing) demand and (limited) production, the attraction for second-hand and its lucrative leverage effects is unfortunately not ready to stop in such a good way. path.
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1815 Chronograph Hampton Court Edition watch, A. Lange & Söhne.
Sold for €1,064,851 at Phillips Geneva.
Phillips/Press Photo