Geneva Auction Week: Indies Shine, Classics Climb, And That Million Dollar Milgauss
Or should I say, two million dollar Milgauss?
The dust is settling from this spring’s Geneva Auction Week 2023, and while it may be true that there are signs of price increases decelerating in some quarters, the results from Auction Week show that demand for high-quality classics, as well as unusual and interesting independent watches, remains as strong as ever. There are always going to be surprises, of course, in any series of auctions where there are hundreds of lots covering, in some cases, hundreds of years of watchmaking but overall, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips all had strong results.
Mike Manjos, The 1916 Company’s Chief Sales Officer, and a watch industry veteran, said he was pleasantly surprised by the energy in the rooms during Auction Week. “The auctions in general were stronger than I expected,” he said, but noted that compared to years past, estimates have become “crazy” – especially in terms of the widening gap between low and high estimates. There were plenty of extraordinary results and a chance to see some extraordinary watches and as usual, there were among all the expected strong contenders, some surprises as well – some good, and some, well, less good.
Rise Of The Indies
Independent watchmaking is fast taking shape as the new frontier for collecting. Although it’s true that at least some blue-chip independent watchmakers have been doing well at auction for sometime now – the most obvious example is Philippe Dufour, one of whose grande et petite sonnerie wristwatches sold at Phillips in 2021 for CHF 3.66 million – independent watchmakers like De Bethune, F. P. Journe, and Roger Smith (a Series 1 Roger Smith sold for CHF 730,250 on a high estimate of CHF 335,000 at Phillips) are all enjoying unprecedented levels of attention, and correspondingly impressive results. It’s still true that rarity and condition trump other considerations, but independent watchmaking as a distinct and separate category is more prominent now than it has ever been in the auction world.
Probably the single biggest case in point from Auction Week was “The Art Of F. P. Journe” at Christie’s, but there were other signs as well – Phillips, for instance, had 46 lots from independent watchmakers, with some stellar results. There were five Daniel Roth watches on the block, all of which went for over their high estimates, including a classic C187 tourbillon that sold for CHF 152,400 on a high estimate of CHF 60,000.
Rolex, Patek Philippe Are (Mostly) As Strong As Ever
It has been said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes, but a strong candidate for a third certainty is that Patek and Rolex are not bad places to park your hard-earned watch dollars. The general performance of both of these mainstays of the auction world (and the collecting world, and the retail world, and the pre-owned world) continues to be very reliable and while the era of shockingly accelerating growth in auction prices seems to be more or less over, it is still without question true that if one of things you want from a five or six figure timepiece is for it to keep its value, it’s hard to find anything more satisfying than the Crown and the Calatrava Cross.
This is not, however, to say that there were not some surprises and one of the biggest ones of the week was the sale of a Rolex Milgauss at Phillips, for CHF 2.238 million. Now it is difficult to talk about such a price, for such a watch, as saying anything about the larger market; after all when you have a piece like this which looks like it made it to the auction block through a Time Machine, there is no market to speak of because there aren’t mint condition Rolex Milgauss watches from the 1950s sitting around waiting for buyers either. Still, hammering for over two million would have been unthinkable for any Milgauss, condition notwithstanding, not that long ago and you have to wonder if in addition to the remarkable state of the 6541, that there wasn’t some renewed interest in Milgauss overall since Rolex discontinued the line over Watches And Wonders Geneva 2023. We’ll have to wait and see.
Condition, Condition, Condition
One very strong message from the auctions was that now more than ever, the condition of a watch can be a make or break factor in how well a given lot performs; it’s not enough for a watch to just tick a particular box in terms of category. This isn’t to say that condition was ever unimportant, but the days of a watch showing up at auction looking as if someone worked it over on a bench grinder and still doing well, may be more or less over.
The 6541 Milgauss is a case in point; another example from Rolex (and another record) was a John Player Special at Sotheby’s that went for CHF 2.380 million. They’re some of the most handsome examples of early Rolex Daytona watches you could ask for, but just being a JPS per se is not necessarily a guarantee that a watch will find a new home – Antiquorum had one that although in respectable condition wasn’t quite as minty-fresh as Sotheby’s and the result was that it passed on an estimate of CHF 700,000 – 1,000,000.
Biver Carillon Tourbillon Reaches CHF 1.27 Million
One of the biggest results, purely from a monetary perspective, was the sale of Jean-Claude Biver’s personal Biver (the brand) prototype Biver Carillon Tourbillon, which is a unique piece with a titanium case and bracelet, and a snowy obsidian dial. The watch itself was bound to generate interest for any number of reasons, mostly having to do with its complexity, status as a unique piece, and the fact that it’s the first watch from Jean-Claude Biver’s own eponymous brand – a first from an industry veteran whose career has not exactly been devoid of firsts. The watch went under the hammer at Phillips and the bids were handled by Aurel Bacs, which brought together two of the industry’s biggest showmen and they did not disappoint.
The bidding was aggressive right from the start and began to climb sharply and as the one million mark approached, Biver and Bacs began offering extras to tempt bidders to get into the spirit of the thing, including a couple of bidders for wheels of Biver’s famous cheese and finally, a bottle of 1949 Chateau d’Yquem, from Jean-Claude Biver’s birth year. (It’s an expensive wine, sure, but it’s also one of the very few wines that can sit in a cellar for 74 years and still come out swinging (which I think was probably part of the point).
The whole question of whether or not these watches are worth it, in some sense, is one that we looked at before the auction but it is worth noting that even at CHF 1 million, the watch was still only about double retail, which is pretty moderate for a unique piece from a luxury watch brand (not that anyone would call a CHF 1.27 million Biver Carillon Tourbillon a value proposition, but still). More importantly, I think the way the lot was handled was an object lesson in making some theater out of what can be a very boring proposition. To this day, watch auctions are often tepid affairs, no matter the value of the watches and you often get the feeling that the person crying the lot is just trying to get it out from under the hammer so they can go on to the next thing – not the case here. It was the single best piece of theater of Auction Week.
A Masterpiece By Breguet Gets Stood Up
At every Auction Week there are always some lots that you feel, rightly or wrongly, should have done better and my pick for the most head-scratching outcome was the failure of a Breguet – by Breguet; you know, Abraham Louis Breguet, for Pete’s sake – that did not sell. The watch in question, no. 47 6/87, is a combination a toc and standard minute repeater perpetuelle, which was Breguet’s term for his self-winding watches. It came onto the block and then off it again so fast you’d have blinked if you missed it – the low estimate was CHF 300,000.
Of course part of the reason I wanted it to sell, and sell well, is because that would be a vindication of my own tastes in general and my aggrieved belief that real horological content is all too often a secondary consideration when it comes to auction prices, but I don’t know – I just find it baffling that while the eyes of the entire watch collecting world were on Geneva, not one single person wanted an honest to Betsy Breguet repeater.
On the other hand, what a time it is to be a Patek cigarette lighter collector.