Auctions
UK-based Wilsons Auctions is holding an auction on August 14 to auction off over £2.3 million of goods seized from a London-based drug dealer. In addition to some red bottoms, a villa in Spain, and other things people rap about, there are a handful of watches up for auction.
Since authorities seized this property and it’s now government property, everything is being sold without a reserve price. Wilsons is in the business of “asset realization” for public sector clients, meaning it manages everything from asset collection to valuation and sale, returning the proceeds to its government clients.
Those interested will be able to bid in person or online. With that, let’s take a look at a few of the watches you can get your hands on.
Read MoreDrops
Earlier this year, Zenith announced its Zenith Defy El Primero Boutique-Exclusive Limited Edition. It’s a cool modern watch, and an astounding technical achievement: the Defy El Primero 21 beats at a frequency of 360,000 vph (50 Hz), ten times that of its El Primero predecessor, enabling 1/100th of a second precision. But still, I didn’t think much of it — brands try to do boutique exclusives all the time to get people into their stores. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
The Zenith Defy was originally launched back in 1967, but Zenith revamped the line in 2017 (thanks, Jean-Claude Biver). Since then, it’s become a staple of Zenith’s collection and a platform for some of its most innovative experiments and concept watches.
Read MoreJust for Fun
Nowadays most Rolex models have a 6-digit reference number, beginning with a “1” (or more recently, “2”). The next three digits represent the model number (usually also starting with a “1”, though newer models now use “2”). After that, the reference number lets you know the bezel type, bracelet type, followed by letters to indicate bezel color (if necessary).
Read MoreAuctions
Christie’s is collaborating with The Keystone to present “The Keystone Collection”, an online auction with over 200 offerings. The Keystone is a Beverly Hills based dealer focused on rare and vintage watches, typically featuring a nice mix of modern and vintage watches across all price points. The collection offered here exemplifies that, with highlights including a rare Patek Philippe Reference 725 perpetual calendar pocket watch signed Tiffany & Co., a Rolex Reference 16758 GMT-Master ‘SARU’, and an A. Lange & Sohne, limited edition pink gold Lange 1 tourbillon.
Christie’s “The Keystone Collection” Auction runs from July 30 until August 13. Let’s take a look at a few of the highlights.
Read MoreBusiness News
Swatch Group reported sales of 4.1 billion Swiss francs (CHF) for the first half of 2019, down 3.7% compared to the year previous. Meanwhile, net income of CHF 415 million was down 11.3% compared to the previous year, while net margin also shrank slightly.
As I covered in the Swiss watch exports report last week, the Hong Kong market saw significant declines due to political turmoil, which Swatch Group was not immune from, though it did report growth in all price segments its other major markets (U.S., mainland China, Japan). I highlight the “all price segments” language because the Swiss watch industry as a whole has experience a continued decline in sales in the low- and mid-price segments. It’s interesting that Swatch is reporting growth in all of these price segments in these major markets, showing that there is not just demand for high-end luxury timepieces, at least in the major markets.
Read MoreDrops
In case you didn’t know, July 20th marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. My weekly newsletter was basically moon themed, I’ve covered results from Sotheby’s special Speedmaster auction, and I’m sure everyone is tired of the Speemaster wrist shots everyone else is posting on Instagram.
I’ve got one more (I promise) moon-themed post, and it’s just to highlight an awesome watch Unimatic released that sold out almost instantly. I’ve highlighted the Italian brand before, as I’ve long loved their classic Italian-inspired dive watches (think Panerai, kind of, but not really), but with a modern, minimalist twist.
To celebrate the moon landing, Unimatic released a special limited edition of its Modello Uno, calling it the Unamtic U1-SP (SP for “Space Program”). Production was limited to just 50 pieces, and it sold out almost as soon as Unimatic announced it.
Read MoreAuctions
Maybe you’ve heard, but July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of mankind first stepping foot on the moon. From NASA’s Instagram:
Today, at 10:56 p.m. EDT 50 years ago, Apollo 11 took that one giant leap – making history for all of mankind. 🌔👨🚀 On the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, we salute the heroes, visionaries and explorers who made the seemingly impossible, possible.
Pretty cool. People have been “celebrating” by posting wrist shots of their Speedmasters all week. After all, is there a more American way to celebrate one of the great achievements of this country than flaunting our blatant consumerism and a Swiss company’s opportunistic profiting off such an achievement?
Well, perhaps one: An auction where those who own the same watch the astronauts wore on that fateful day can resell their timepieces at heavily inflated prices because of a bubble fueled by the consumerist habit of buying and flaunting said watches mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Anyway, let’s take a look at some of the best Omega Speedmasters that sold at Sotheby’s “To the Moon and Back | Celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11” auction form July 19.
Read MoreBusiness News
Swiss watch exports dropped 10.7% in June 2019 compared to the year previous, totaling 1.7 billion Swiss francs (CHF) for the month. Units sold was down 17%. The first half of 2019 ends with an increase of 1.4% over the previous year, with total exports at over CHF 10 billion. It’s a slow down from the first quarter, when exports were up 2.9%.
In short, the story of June was a few less purchases of high-value precious metal (or two-tone) watches that allow the industry to report top line growth while in reality much of the market outside of the high end is struggling.
Read MoreAuctions
On Tuesday, July 9, Fortuna Auction hosted a “No-Reserve Watches” Auction, featuring 106 lots. Usually, lots offered at auction have a “reserve price” and if the final bid doesn’t meet or exceed that price, the lot will be pulled. Since all these watches had no reserve prices, they were all going home with someone new by the end of the night, like a puppy at an adoption center event. Let’s take a look at a few of the watches that sold.
Read MoreAuctions
Sure, Watches of Knightsbridge has its monthly online auctions, which often have some nice watches in their own right. But a few times a year, they offer a larger platform, hosting a live auction in their native London. The next live auction is July 20’s Fine, Rare, and Collectible Timepieces, featuring 217 lots. There are three Rolex Submariners on the catalog cover, which might hint at the general theme of this auction. Let’s take a look at a few of the best watches up for auction.
Read MoreAnalysis
“When Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, announced the Apple Watch in September 2014, the Swiss watch industry shuddered,” writes the New York Times in an article surveying the past, present, and future impact of the Apple Watch.
It’s already the self-proclaimed "#1 watch in the world." That's how Tim Cook opened the Apple Watch portion of the September 2018 Apple Keynote, just four years after the Watch’s arrival. A year earlier, Cook explicitly mentioned that Apple was actually the largest watch brand in terms of revenue – not just units sold – surely sending chills down the spines of Rolex and other Swiss watch execs in the old boys club.
But if Apple really is the number one watch manufacturer in the world, it may not feel like it.
Read MoreJust for Fun
In honor of July 4, I thought it appropriate to take a look back at our most American posts of the year thus far. Overall, it’s been another solid year in the slow but steady “renaissance” of American watchmaking, and we’ve been here to cover it.
Read MoreAuctions
Antiquorum is hosting a live auction in Monaco on July 16, with online bidding taking place beforehand. There are 342 lots, mostly wristwatches. There are vintage and modern timepieces at every price point, so let’s dig in.
Read MoreAuctions
Bonhams is hosting a number of wristwatch auctions this summer, but the most lots are on offer in its two-part “Vintage Wristwatches from a Private Collection”. Part 1 ended on June 27, while Part 2 is open until July 3. There are no headliner grabbers here, just some decent, honest watches that will all likely sell for under $5,000 to $6,000. The auction is full of Movado, Omega, Universal Geneve, and Vacheron — the collector here seemed to know what he or she liked, and went in deep. There’s also a lot of gold watches, with some exceptions (which I’ll highlight below).
Read MoreAnalysis
Luxury online consigner The RealReal (TRR) has gone public on the Nasdaq, raising $300 million in an initial public offering, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. The IPO comes just days after sneaker marketplace StockX raised a new round of funding at a $1 billion valuation. and brought in a grown up to be the new CEO (sorry, backwards hat guy). The pre-owned, used, retail, whatever you want to call it space is heating up, and investors have been taking notice.
The RealReal, along with Poshmark and Thred Up, are the leading players in the resale sector. TRR offers a diverse selection of luxury items, including clothing, jewelry, art, home goods, and yes, watches. The company, founded in 2011, seeks to separate itself by authenticating every item that it consigns on its site. To consign goods on the site, you schedule an appointment with one of their authenticators, who checks out your goods and makes sure they’re legit.
Read MoreJust for Fun
Let’s take a look back at John Mayer’s 2012 Rolex recs: if you had invested in his portfolio of five vintage Rolexes, how would you have made out over the ensuing seven years?
Read MoreBusiness News
Exports in the Swiss watchmaking rose 11.4% in May to just over 2 billion Swiss francs (CHF). Much of the increase was driven by the “other products” category, which is so often ignored — it was up 62% year-over-year — apparently people bought a lot of alarm clocks and small clocks last month. Growth in wristwatches was up 8.6% in terms of Swiss francs, but down 9% in terms of units sold. This continues the trend to selling fewer, higher-priced precious metal and two-tone watches.
The numbers are a positive rebound for the industry after it saw exports drop 0.4% in April; this was after exports grew a steady 2.9% in the first quarter of 2019.
Read MoreAuctions
As I previously wrote, this blog’s goal for the rest of 2019 is to cover more watch auctions. The good, the bad, the ugly — whatever may come. Lucky for us, there’s a great online auction from Christie’s going on from now until June 25. With 232 lots, there’s a lot to get to, so let’s dig right in.
Read MoreJust for Fun
Lately, I’ve noticed that there seems to be a real lack of watch auction coverage around the internet. When I wrote my preview of Christie’s spring 2019 auction, there wasn’t much else out there covering the offerings at Christies, or the competing spring auctions from the other large auction houses, namely Sotheby’s and Phillips (I even tried to cover Antiquorum’s auction in our weekly newsletter because it seemed like no one else was). Sure, the sale of Andy Warhol’s Rolex garnered some headlines, but that’s little more than clickbait.
Say what you want about watch auctions, but they still bring some much-needed transparency to the market, help identify and define trends, and help advance scholarship, especially on rare and unique watches. And on a selfish level, learning about watches up for auction forces me to take the time to understand these new pieces and argue why one is worth highlighting in an article over another.
So, I’ll be making a concerted effort over the rest of the year to cover all the watch auctions I have time for. The first step in this is gathering up all the auctions from the various houses to make sure they’re on my radar for the second half of 2019
Read MoreBusiness News
Probably the most important question about a watch is its provenance. Where did it come from, and can you prove that it came from where you say it did? For centuries, this has meant having a watch’s “box and papers” to sell alongside the timepiece itself. These box and papers are thought to provide proof that the watch is legitimate, and that the buyer can proceed with confidence.
In reality, there’s not a full-proof way to be sure that the box and papers being offered alongside the watch are legit. These papers can be forged, faked, or tampered with, and with the money to be made in vintage watches, the motivation certainly exists.
Vacheron Constantin is hoping to use blockchain technology to chain that. A blockchain, by design, is an open, distributed ledger that can record a transaction between two parties in a verifiable and permanent way.
Read More
