Global Auction sales for prestigious watchers have been described as “lacklustre” for the first six months of 2023 as they dropped by 18% over the same period last year.
But the spring season was hardly a washout.
Thierry Huron, founder and CEO of The Mercury Project, and author of the excellent Hammertrack reports that analyse watch auction results, says the world’s major auctioneers struggled to match the record results of spring, 2022, which took place at the very zenith of hysteria in vintage and second hand watches.
The secondary market peaked in March 2022 and fell for the rest of the calendar year.
Compared to the rout of flippers’ and traders’ of hot watches like Rolex Daytonas, Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks and Patek Philippe Nautiluses and Aquanauts, the traditional auction market outperformed.
Auctions by Antiquorum, Bonhams, Christie’s, Phillips (in association with Bacs & Russo), Polyauction and Sotheby’s achieved total watch sales of CHF 312 million in the first half of the year, declining by 18% compared with the first half of 2022.
Take out the bubble performance of Spring 2022 — when 15 auctions generated sales of over CHF 10 million — and this year’s H1 performance looks more solid.
The average price paid per watch this year was flat compared to the whole of 2022, at just over CHF 50,000, but the number of lots sold per event was almost half the average of last year: 65 lots per auction compared to 107 at the Spring auctions of 2022 and 123 at the Autumn sales.
“Despite a 10% fall in the number of lots sold — 6,201 lots compared to 6,870 in H1 2022 — the market is showing good maturity in its premiumisation,” Mr Huron suggests.
Phillips held the biggest auction of this year’s Spring season, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XVII racking up sales of CHF 41.7 million.
Christie’s had a good season, hosting four out of ten watch auctions that topped CHF 10 million in total sales.
Its Art of F.P. Journe auction in Geneva had the highest average price per watch for any auction in Spring, with an average of CHF 341,633 paid for each of the 40 lots.
Overall, Christie’s sales (CHF 110.5 million (+7%)) topped the total of Phillips (CHF 103.3 million (-16%)) for the first time in recent history.
Traditional auction houses appear to be focusing on quality over quantity this year, as Rémi Guillemin, Christie’s watch department’s European head, told WatchPro ahead of the Art of F.P. Journe auction. “We have to make the sales more dynamic, more interesting, shorter,” he urged.
Geneva and Hong Kong dominated the Spring auctions with auctions totalling sales of CHF 122 million and CHF 108 million, respectively.
New York suffered the sharpest fall in total sales, with last year’s CHF 76 million dropping 30% to CHF 53 million.
Six-figure watches, the bread and butter segment of the watch auction scene, have proved to be softest in the current market.
H1 2023 sales of watches priced from CHF 100,000 to CHF 999,999 dropped by 32% from a total of CHF 216 million to CHF 140 million.
The share of total auction sales by six-figure watches contracted from 57% in H1 2022 to 45% this year.
Millionaire watches were far stronger, with aggregate sales from 16 seven-figure watches rising 38% from CHF 56 million to CHF 77 million.
Patek Philippe remains the king of the prestige watch auction scene, with average prices for 255 lots rising by 25%. This helped total sales reach CHF 105 million, more than every other brand combined.
Only 106 Rolex’s went under the hammer, but they were mostly in the rare and prestigious category, which helped average prices rise by 23%.
Audemars Piguet was the season’s biggest loser, dropping from third to fifth, behind F.P. Journe and Richard Mille, with aggregate sales of just CHF 7 million.
Top 10 watches sold at auction in 2023
