Auctions: Three Big Takeaways From The Geneva Fall Auction Season
Bonjour, from what was, for a long time, the home of movers and shakers in the auction market: Geneva, Switzerland. Actually, I come to you from the train as I head up to Zürich and onward, but you're not here for a travel report. In a way, though, Geneva's results this week—or rather, how the auction houses came into the week and positioned themselves—show some geographic realignment. Phillips continues to set records with another "white glove" sale (100% of lots sold) that was the first live watch auction to break $100 million. With $112.3 million worth of watches sold and 17 lots over CHF 1 million—Patek Philippe, Rolex, Cartier, F.P. Journe, Harry Winston, Voutilainen, and Philippe Dufour—Phillips seems to largely dominate the energy in Geneva these days. It's spectacle sometimes, just as much as collecting, which we'll get to in a moment. Instead of trying to fight it out, it seems Sotheby's (and, to a lesser extent, Christie's) are slightly redirecting effort to New York, which is increasingly becoming a sale location that mirrors the market's overall importance. That being said, Christie's also set a record for their auction house with a white-glove sale in Geneva and a $58 million total, 221% of what they made last year. Hong Kong is hard for me to feel out, and with a ton of lots, it often feels like a clearinghouse. Sometimes it's hard to tell if HK and the Chinese market are buying voraciously or offloading expeditiously. Regardless, that doesn't mean t...
Fratello
