The Highs (And Lows) Of a Weekend of Watch Auctions in Geneva

An army of watch collectors descended on Geneva over the past weekend for a series of watch sales from Phillips and Christie’s, and they got quite a show. The goings-on included two new price records for Phillips, thirteen sales that each exceeded a million Swiss francs at Christie’s and even some top-level trolling courtesy of one of the watch world’s foremost mischief-makers.

Phillips saw $4.09 million USD spent on a George Daniels Spring Case Tourbillon, one of only two wristwatches Daniels made with his own hands. The sale price was the highest ever paid for the work of a British watchmaker. Daniels’ creation wasn’t the only record-setter Phillips served up either, with an 1815 Chronograph “Hampton Court Edition” breaking the A. Lange & Söhne sales record with a price of CHF 1,058,500 ($1.07M USD) paid — all the proceeds of which went to The Prince’s Trust charity.

Besides these two highlights, Phillips also oversaw the sale of a unique Zenith Calibre 135-O, restored and finished by master watchmaker Kari Voutilainen. The watch achieved more than twice the $136,000 USD retail price of its ten-piece limited edition dropped back in June, with $315,662 USD going to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Meawhile Christie’s $32.3M USD in total sales was topped by a sapphire and titanium Richard Mille RM56-01 that achieved $3.69M USD. Other highlights included two unique F.P. Journe watches; the first a Grande et Petite Sonnerie – which was a bespoke commission for a collector and emblazoned with the words “FIA 7th Constructors Formula One World Champions” – and sold for $3.08M USD and a unique F.P. Journe Centigraphe “specially made for the man who inspired and contributed to the very conception of the Centigraphe model,” which features Ferrari’s Prancing Horse badge and the initials JT on its red dial and achieved $1.99M USD.

All the big-buck buys risked being overshadowed by the antics of meme Instagram account @Horological_Dicktionary though. The HD crew took such a dislike to the Ingenieux By Marco Mavilla Royal Oak/Nautilus mash-up on sale at Antiquorum that it crowd-funded several thousand dollars from its followers in an attempt to buy the watch and then destroy it in public. However, their budget didn’t quite stretch to the CHF 35,000 ($35,375 USD) eventually achieved for the piece.

Elsewhere in watches, Christopher Ward brought forward a second Striking Hour edition after the Bel Canto sold out in hours.