LADIES ONLY — Artcurial Introduces Its Latest Auction Exclusively For Women's Watches

Two upcoming Artcurial auctions in Monte Carlo are focusing entirely on ladies’ timepieces, an underrated segment of the industry that just might blossom this year. Simon de Burton reports.

The common denominator applicable to the dozen or so major watch auctions that took place in May and June was the fact that the top 10 lot lists of each were dominated by the Patek Philippe and Rolex dial names with a smattering of independents.

Which is exactly what we’ve come to expect from such sales.

But a perhaps more obvious (and likely more interesting) parallel is that there wasn’t a single women’s watch among the top-selling pieces because, quite simply, women’s watches are just not as collectible or as widely appreciated as those made for men.

The reason for that is made obvious at every watch auction, where at least 85% of attendees are male (and where an even greater majority of actual buyers are men).

But back in January 2018 French house Artcurial inadvertently discovered a gap in the market when it put together a sale dedicated to women’s watches.

The catalyst for the auction was the consignment of 80 Piaget watches by a Johannesburg retailer, to which a further 158 pieces from various owners were added to create a stand-alone sale that grossed close to €500,000.

Since then, Artcurial’s ‘Le Temps et Feminin’ events have happened twice a year (in January and July) with the nine individual catalogues to date raising around €5.5m between them.

On July 17 and 19, Artcurial will up the ante by staging not one but two women-only watch auctions at Monaco’s Hotel Hermitage Monte Carlo, the first being a remarkable single-owner hoard entitled The Sparkling Collection which comprises no fewer than 80 lots, all of which have been locked in a safe since the 1980s.

Owned by an elderly (and highly anonymous) female vendor, the collection is headlined by 15 rare Piaget creations, many featuring the coloured, hard stone dials for which the maker became famous during the 1970s.

Among them is a cuff watch in malachite and yellow gold from around 1970 which will be offered with a matching ring, sautoir and pair of pendant earrings at a pre-sale estimate of €80,000–€120,000. Only eight such sets were produced by the Swiss jeweller/watchmaker between 1970 and 1976.

Other Piaget highlights include a 1970s coral and yellow gold cuff watch, one of only 15 with ornamental hard stone dials (est. €60,000-80,000) and a manchette watch in yellow gold, sapphire and lapis lazuli from 1968 that could draw a similar price.

Further standout pieces from the collection include a 1920s Cartier Art Deco wristwatch in diamonds and onyx (€15,000-20,000) and a 1972, yellow gold, diamond set Boucheron (€15,000-20,000).

Artcurial’s Temps et Feminin sales are put together by the firm’s watch division director, Marie Sanna-Legrand, who takes an interesting approach to catalogue photography by illustrating the lots in ‘still life’ situations rather than in the no-frills format generally favoured by watch auctioneers.

In addition to the ‘Sparkling Collection’ Sanna-Legrand has also put together another multi-owner ‘Le Temps et Feminin’ sale comprising around 100 lots with estimates from as little as Euros 1,000 to as much as Euros 100,000 for a Patek Philippe ‘parure’ from 1978 that combines a pink coral, hand wound watch with a necklace and bracelet.

Sanna-Legrand compiles these women’s watch sales with the help of independent consultant and veteran auction house specialist Geoffroy Ader (one of the curators of the recent OAK Collection exhibition) who believes the potential market for female-orientated timepieces has yet to be fully realised.

“Traditionally, women’s watches either end up in jewellery sales where they are often overlooked, or in general watch sales where they are overshadowed by the far greater numbers of men’s watches and, usually, completely ignored because such sales tend to attract a large majority of male collectors,” Mr Ader told WATCHPRO.

“It was the collection from Johannesburg that made us think, four years ago, that we could be doing something more with women’s watches. Prior to that, we had kept a lovely Piaget in the safe for more than 12 months because we didn’t really know what to do with it in terms of presenting it and getting it the recognition it deserved,” says Mr Ader.

“And one of the really interesting things about the best vintage women’s watches is that they were mostly made when the Swiss watch industry was having a bad time due to the introduction of quartz movements – I’m talking about the period from the 1960s to the 1980s.

“That was when Cartier and Piaget made their very best watches for women. It was truly the golden era for Piaget , when it was employing its abilities as both a jeweller and watchmaker to create some absolutely spectacular pieces – if you look back at fashion magazines from the ‘70s such as Vogue, Piaget watches were everywhere.”

Mr Ader says auctions of women’s watches differ from those for mainly men’s models both in the most collectable makes (Piaget and Cartier instead of Patek and Rolex) and in the fact that the ‘complication’ pieces that make high prices at conventional sales barely exist in the vintage female watch category.

“I really think people are beginning to discover the significance of some of these great women’s pieces,” says Mr Ader, citing the sale of January 2021 where a Cartier ‘Peau de Panthere’ watch from 1938 realised €331,200 against an estimate of €20,000-30,000.

“Bringing them out into the daylight with their own catalogues and photographing them in an almost magazine-like way is definitely raising awareness – the auction world needs fantasy, and that’s exactly what many of these watches provide.”

Artcurial’s ‘Sparkling Collection’ and ‘Le Temps est Feminin’ auctions take place on July 17 and 19 respectively at the Hotel Hermitage Monte Carlo, Monaco. Full details of viewing and sale times at artcurial.com