October was a good harvest of auction results worldwide : Sotheby’s Hong-Kong (10/05/16), Antiquorum New York (10/08/16) and Christie’s Dubaï (10/19/16) with its special section dedicated to Nautilus. Coming up this week with a detailed analysis to see if results matched collector’s trends, brands that emerged and which lots attracted most competition among bidders.

Sotheby’s, October 5th in Hong-Kong : Let’s start with a top scan of the sale ; overall it made 6 140 664,11 US$ (buyer’s premium) for 256 lots sold, which makes it the biggest one of the three chosen for you this month. This gives us an average value per lot sold of 23 986,96 US$. Even if the total amount of this sale was down in comparison to previous years, the diversity among its selection, far beyond star brands like Patek Philippe and Rolex, also brought great harvest of auction results.

This time, match point was between Audemars Piguet and Panerai which represented in total 65 lots which was a large portion of this sale. The total value of 36 lots sold for Audemars Piguet represented 1 105 733US$ in opposition to Panerai with 29 lots sold for 344 886US$. Consequently, Audemars Piguet won the match point including a Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph 10-day power reserve, selling for 145 046 US$.

Highlight of this sale, lot 2290, was nonetheless a desk clock by Patek Philippe, estimated 96 697 US$ and sold finally for 120 872 US$. This solar clock made on special request, fully enamelled with panels representing a carnival and masked ball, was bearing the signature of its enameller, Marie-Françoise Martin. This clock powered by solar panels was one of the first ones to be made and a unique piece.

Antiquorum, October 8th in New York : The second auction took place in New York and reached 5 600 490 US$ with 279 lots sold (324 in total). This ratio gives us an average for each lot sold of 20 073,44 US$, even if the ratio is lower than its competitors it is important to notice that Rolex vintage sports watches performed really well.

Patek Philippe and Rolex were leading the selection with respectively 65 and 52 lots. These two brands significant on today’s market’s trend represented 42% of this sale. Both amounts were significantly good with 2 211 525 US$ for Patek Philippe and 1 042 888 US$ for all Rolex watches of which one rare Daytona « Paul Newman » reference 6240 sold for 243 750 US$, lot 232.

Lot 103, Rolex Cosmograph from 1968, reference 6240, particularly struck my attention. This rare model went beyond all expectations well above its starting price at 25 000 US$ which went up to 87 500 US$. This piece was particularly interesting because it was not only complete with box and papers but was from the first generation of reference 6240 with silver and black dial, known as well by collectors « SOLO » bearing only the « COSMOGRAPH » indication on the dial.

Christie’s, October 19th in Dubaï : A quick scan of the special section dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Nautilus allows us to see that all lots were sold, which is a great market indication for all three sections to follow in Geneva, Hong Kong and New York. In total for 124 lots sold in this auction, total amount was 3 931 500 US$ meaning that average lot value per lot sold was 31 963,41 US$. This means that Christie’s reached this month the best average value per lot sold sold among all its competitors.

Match point was very tight between Nautilus and Daytona models and despite Nautilus 40th anniversary section which performed well, Rolex is again winning on the market this month, with a Daytona among others which sold for 199 500 US$, lot 136. With respectively 23 lots for Rolex and 31 for Patek Philippe, total amounts were 1 318 625 US$ and 778 250 US$, thus confirming the leading status of Rolex vintage sports watches among collectors, which really are more and more sought after on the auction block.

Lot 137 highlighted in « The expert’s eye » reached 193 500 US$, with an estimate of 150 000 US$, which overall is a good performance. As all of you may remember, it was a special piece with the « Khanjar » symbol on the dial, made on special request for the Sultanate of Oman, dated 1978 with only two pieces known on the market.

As a conclusion, all auctions worldwide were interesting and achieved for each one surprising results in different cities around the globe. Purely speaking in terms of numbers, Christie’s with its special section dedicated to the Nautilus 40th anniversary achieved impressive results with highest average value per lot sold. On the contrary for the total value of the sale, Sotheby’s comes first with its Hong Kong sale on October 5th, but definitely Antiquorum confirmed the trend towards all vintage sports watches by Rolex with impressive results in New York.

These three auctions are a perfect illustration of all dynamics on the market worldwide, especially on vintage watches which leads me to my next article ‘The expert’s eye’ to be released on November 7th ‘Geneva Focus’. The entire community will be focusing very soon on Geneva, it is the heart of the market for vintage watches by far, we will go in depth on all stars and unusual lots to come under the hammer of all auctioneers at Antiquorum, Christie’s Phillips and Sotheby’s.