Remarkable Watches and Spectacular Results from the Geneva Watch Auction XIII May 8-9, 2021
The Geneva Watch Auction XIII taking place this weekend May 8-9 was a fun and intriguing “live TV show” for watch lovers and collectors everywhere. The results at this major auction organized by Phillips were overall quite spectacular, even under some very optimistic expectations. There were in total 230+ lots divided in two 6-hour sessions over 2 days. Phillips just announced that a total of 38 million Swiss Franc was realized in the auction. Here are the lots that I found most interesting that I’d like to share with you.
The most intriguing, elegant and rare timepiece from this auction IMHO belongs to lot 88 the Cartier “Baseball” from 1972. A total of only six pieces had been made based on research done by Phillips team. No wonder for most people including myself, it was the first time we saw this watch. How do you put a value on such a rare timepiece? The hammer price was CHF320K (what the seller gets) as shown in the screenshot below. The commission is 26%, so the final price is CHF403,200 (what the buyer pays). In USD, the final price is about $448K. It is amazing that there are so many superior models in Cartier’s history and I hope that Cartier will bring back the “Baseball” someday in the future.
This following lot offers Collecting 101, as we may see what brings value in collecting. Lot 34 is an example of Tudor Black Bay GMT first launched in 2018. I bought the exact same watch and here is my review. The watch is readily available today at ADs for about $4K. The final price is almost $14K. The reason is that the lot 34 is one of a 90-piece special edition made by Tudor for Italian official retailer "Ronchi" for its 90th Anniversary. The “"Ronchi" name is printed on the dial, as we may see in the picture. This is what makes this watch a very special Black Bay GMT that fetched a nice price at the auction.
We will look at several world time wristwatches next. The first one lot 73 is a Tissot timepiece in a yellow gold case and bracelet made around 1950. In this unique and elegant design, the 24 city names are lined up along the radial lines of the dial. For the US, the 4 time zones are represented by New York, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco. It is quite interesting that watch makers chose different cities for the various time zones, as we may see next.
The next example, lot 63, is a very rare world time chronograph reference 5930G made by Patek Philippe. It is so wonderful to see two beloved complications combined in one. A fifth of a second division scale has been added between the mobile city and 24-hour rings, and the 30 minutes counter is placed at 6 o’ clock. The four time zones for the US are represented by New York, Mexico, Denver and Los Angeles in this timepiece.
The 3rd world time watch is a previously unknown Patek Philippe reference 2523 that was bought at the highest price of this entire auction, a whopping CHF7.048M or $7.82M. While the normal design of Patek world-timers is based on one crown and one pusher, this watch uses two crowns in a very rare construction. The dial is made of cloisonné enamel depicting a map of “Eurasia”. It was introduced as the “Silk Road” 2523 in 1953 and then sold one year later. The four US time zones are shown as New York & Montreal, Chicago, Mexico & Denver, and California in this very rare piece.
Lot 165 is an IWC prototype stainless steel split seconds chronograph wristwatch that was sold at $133K. What is so special about this piece? If you are fond of independent watchmakers, you have most likely heard of Habring2, the Austria-based watch brand founded by husband and wife team Richard and Maria Habring. Richard had worked at IWC for many years before founding his own company. The Lot 165 was owned by Richard and was made available for auction with all proceeds going to charity. I own a Habring2 timepiece (review here) and I was so happy to see this watch get a very nice price going toward a good cause.
De Bethune is an independent brand I love and I’m a proud owner of a DB27 piece (review here). There are 4 De Bethune watches in this auction and they all did quite well. The lot 146 is DB1, the very first creation in 2002 by De Bethune’s founding team. The design of the watch is incredibly attractive with its slim case, short bullet shaped lugs, large flat bezel and beautiful silver dial with guilloché centre. The final price is about $168K, six times the high end of the estimated price.
DB25QP is a perpetual calendar produced in 2017 that presents date, day, month and moon phase in an elegant, classic, and stunning dial design. The case, crown and skeletonized lugs in rose gold are beautifully done to complement this masterpiece. The final price is $126K. The auction results are very good news for the De Bethune team, as their creations have been recognized by the collecting community.
F.P. Journe has been the darling of the watch auctions in the last 1-2 years and was crushing it again at this auction. There were 11 lots from F.P. Journe participating in this auction, perhaps the largest number ever in recent history. Let’s focus on two “entry level” models here. The Chronomètre Bleu (CB) is Journe’s time-only, least expensive model by retail price. CB was introduced in 2011 with a yearly production of 100-200 and is best-known for its mesmerizing blue dial and unusual tantalum case. It was an instant hit with prices in the secondary market keeping climbing up to 2-3 times of retail price. The record has been smashed this weekend with an incredible price of $105K. Notice that the case number is “2-258CB” made in 2018, which means that there had been a total of 1258 CB pieces produced by 2018.
Another entry model for F.P. Journe is the Chronomètre Souverain (CS), which shares the same movement 1304 as CB. The main difference is a power reserve indicator on CS dial, which is not present in the CB dial. The CS was launched in 2005 and won a GPHG award in the same year. While the total numbers of CB and CS ever produced are quite similar, there are a lot more variety of dial designs for CS. I myself own a CS in mother-of-pearl dial and rose gold that I reviewed here.
In the past, CS’s performance at auctions had been always less impressive than CB. The history would change this time, as the lot 140 F.P. Journe Chronomètre Souverain has CS-001 on its case. This is the very first CS ever to leave F.P. Journe’s workshop! The seller of this timepiece, if it was the original owner, was rewarded richly for its foresight and confidence in placing the first order for CS by a final auction price of $182K.
Last but not least, one big winner of this auction who is not a watchmaker is none other than the leading watch media and e-tailer Hodinkee. There were THREE collaboration timepieces between Hodinkee and top-notch independent watchmakers joining the auction this time. The first was the TAG Heuer Skipper for Hodinkee sold for close to $27K (lot 163). The second was the Laurent Ferrier “Galet Micro-Rotor 40mm for Hodinkee” which fetched $70K (lot 225). The third was the MB&F “Legacy Machine 101 for Hodinkee” that was auctioned off for $105K (lot 226). Congratulations to TAG Heuer, Laurent Ferrier, MB&F and Hodinkee! Congratulations to all the winning bidders!