With over €4 million recorded for a single George Daniels watch, sales have often reached unreasonable heights in recent days.
The performances are enough to make you dizzy. The high point of the auction season, the results of watch sales in Geneva in early November were under hyperbole. A total of more than €55 million for Christie’s, which will sell all its lots, including 17 for more than €1 million. A few steps away, Phillips will register no less than €45 million under the hammer of Aurel Bacs, its star auctioneer at the beginning of the house’s watch department. Here, too, 100% of the lots have flown in the privacy of award-winning collectors, and some will be benchmarks for the sums achieved. A. Lange & Söhne in the running, but above all one of the George Daniels, which flew in at over €4 million.
The “world’s most expensive bag,” signed Hermès in the video, will soon be up for auction again
Second breath
If Aurel Bacs likes to remember that at auction, as in the stock market, prices are set by the actors, then the new exploits achieved in the vintage watch market border on speculative madness. According to Alexander Ghotbi, director of Phillips watchmaking in Europe and the Middle East. “The performances of the past few days not only celebrate independent watchmaking, but also demonstrate the community’s voracious appetite for rare timepieces that bear witness to the history of watchmaking.” . Because if Rolex or Audemars Piguet legends always attract (more than 3 million for the Daytona Paul Newman Lemon), it is really very accurate and more modern examples that fly to the top. Anything related to Richard Mille or FP Journe, of course (two big modern watch names are very popular), but also more atypical examples like A.Lange & Söhne in magnetic black. As the windows of the great houses remain desperately empty in the face of (increasing) demand and (limited) production, the allure of the second-hand and its profitable leverage effects will unfortunately not end so well.
Source: Le Figaro
