Sam hines phillips

Phillips names Sam Hines as head of watch team

Sam Hines has been appointed as international head of watches by auction house Phillips.

London-born Hines will lead Phillips’ newly created watch team from its recently opened Asian headquarters in Hong Kong, including newly appointed director of its London watches department, Paul Maudsley.

During his twenty year career within the auction world, watch specialist Hines has held several executive positions in New York and Asia leading the charge of many high profile ‘important watch’ sales.

In 2013 Sam Hines was appointed international co-head of Christie’s watches department.

Phillips set up its watch department last year, appointing Bacs & Russo in a consulting role. Aurel Bacs and Livia Russo will continue to work exclusively with the department as senior consultants.

Hines will now work with the international team on the content of its forthcoming sales in Geneva in November and the inaugural Hong Kong sale in December.

Edward Dolman, chairman and chief executive officer of Phillips, said: “Sam has pushed the boundaries of watch collecting, expanding the awareness of the watch market to a vast network of established and emerging collectors. He has built his career on forming long term relationships with many of the world’s watch collecting elite. We welcome Sam and look forward to future successes with him and the watches team as we strive to set the highest possible standards in this and other categories at Phillips.”

Highlights from Sam Hines’ career to date include the discovery and sale of two previously unknown pocket watches from the third generation of James Ward Packard, achieving $2.7m (£1.7m) at auction in 2011, as well as curating the sale of Asia’s most expensive horological object; a pair of Singing Bird Pistols which sold for $5.8m.

He has also been responsible for numerous auction records for some of the world’s most important wristwatches and watches, pocket watches and automata, including the sale of the only known Patek Philippe Star Calibre 2000 for $3.5m, a Rolex cloisonné enamel wristwatch for $1m and two sets of the Patek Philippe reference 5004 for $3.75m.

Aurel Bacs added: “I proudly welcome my dear friend, Sam Hines. Sam has, without a doubt, the trust of the world’s key collectors and trade thanks to his unrivalled expertise, honesty, transparency and integrity. He is an important advisor to elite collectors, especially in Asia. He has a reputation for continuous outperformance, resulting in unmatched relationships within the industry. Sam is the ideal leader for this growing team focussing on quality, be it the property or services we offer the market. It is a great pleasure to work with the distinguished international specialists that have been brought together to form this team.”

The Phillips international team of watch specialists now includes: Aurel Bacs and Livia Russo, Senior Consultants, based in Geneva; Nathalie Monbaron, Business Development Director, based in Geneva; Virginie Liatard-Roessli, Department Manager, based in Geneva; Paul Maudsley, International Specialist, Director of the London Watches Department, based in London; Kate Lacey, Specialist, based in London; Paul Boutros, Consultant and International Strategy Advisor, based in New York; Leigh Zagoory, Cataloguer and Junior Specialist, based in New York and Jill Chen, Business Development Director, based in Hong Kong.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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