The large auction houses showed 27% sales growth last year.

2024 proved to be a very good year for the pre-owned watch market and the auctions. The Only Watch charity auction made a successful comeback, which was followed by a number of remarkable sales like Watches For ELA (European Leukodystrophy Association) and the Children Action charity gala before the end of the year.

Monaco Legend Auctions had grown by leaps and bounds, now hot on the heels of the leading auction houses. The most pleasant news is that the market grew despite major problems at Christie's, which began at the very end of 2023 and haunted the auction house through to spring 2024.

First came the accusations made against the Only Watch charity auction conducted by Christie's, then a lawsuit was filed by the collector Mohammed Zaman, who had consigned his watches for an auction on November 2023, and subsequently claimed that the results fell short of sales potential due to the organizer's mistake, and finally, there was the cyberattack on Christie's website with clients' personal information.

All of this led to a situation, where a significant number of collectors looking to sell their treasures opted to consign them to other auction houses, and potential buyers decided to take time out until they could be sure that the auction house's security team had solved all the problems.

The clearest illustration of the fallout for Christie's was the story of American collector Gordon Bethune. The long-time friend and partner of the auction house decided to support Christie's despite everything, and consigned part of his collection at November sales with the previous year's hit as the star lot.

The rare pink-gold triple calendar Rolex Oyster Perpetual Ref. 6062 "Stelline" model, acquired for CHF 2,223,000 in November 2023 at Christie's infamously scandalous Genevan Passion for Time auction. In the end, the "Stelline" sold for just CHF 1,376,000, closer to its lower estimate, and Mr. Bethune's act of generosity cost him around a million US dollars.

Standard November

Whatever the reason, it took the pre-owned watch market a year to finally come to its senses. And that's why experts generally agree that the November sales in Geneva can be considered the main and most objective measure of last year's performance. They were held by the big three — Phillips, Sotheby's and Christie’s — plus Antiquorum.

So comparing the Genevan sales in November 2023 and November 2024 also offers a fairly representative insight into the situation on the market. The auction houses auctioned off a combined sales total of USD 114.2 million at the November auctions in Geneva last year, which is about 26.7% more than in November 2023.

At the same time, they managed to sell 1083 lots, which is actually 5.3% less than in 2023. The primary takeaways is that the average lot price grew by almost a third, which is quite significant growth and pretty much the milestone of the year. Here's another interesting observation: the 1083 watches sold were 85.6% of all the watches listed for auction.

There were roughly the same amount of watch owners unhappy with the sums they were offered in 2023. Around 156 withdrew their watches from the auctions, and many of them were offered at Antiquorum's Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, where 121 lots went unsold. 

But 351 consignors were satisfied in 2024, whose lots exceeded their estimates, and 19 watches went for over USD 1 million, compared to just eleven in 2023. Based on the statistics, this growth is also colossal at a staggering 73%. 

Let's consider a breakdown of these statistics for each auction house:

Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo Geneva Watch Auction: XX, November 9 – 10, 2024

Lots                 Total Sales (USD)                    Sale Rate (%)

133                  29,282,978                               98.5

Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo Reloaded: The Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking, 1980-1999. November 8, 2024

Lots                 Total Sales (USD)                    Sale Rate

65                    28,399,868                               100

Sotheby's Treasures of Time, November 10, 2024

Lots                 Total Sales (USD)                    Sale Rate

31                    15,240,316                               93.5

Sotheby's Important Watches: Part I, November 10, 2024

Lots                 Total Sales (USD)                    Sale Rate

95                    7,678,057                                77.8

Christie's Rare Watches Including Watches for ELA, November 11, 2024

Lots                 Total Sales (USD)                    Sale Rate

157                  20,639,833                               94.3

Antiquorum Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, November 9 – 10, 2024

Lots                 Total Sales (USD)                    Sale Rate

600                  12,950,004                               79.8

Top Brands in 2024

Now is the perfect time to zoom in and find out which auction houses sold the watches that enjoyed the most success in Geneva's November sales. If you judge performance quantitatively by units sold, the most coveted watches were Rolex models. A total of 237 Rolex models went under the hammer at the main sales of the year.

However, that's 16% less than in 2023. But they still achieved a sales total of USD 24,741,134, which is a staggering 32% up on the previous year. The dominant brand with the most expensive watches is of course Patek Philippe. A total of 216 timepieces by this brand were sold across all of these auctions, so Patek Philippe secured second place in terms of units sold.

They sold 12.5% less timepieces than in 2023 to raise a sales total of USD 35,621,329, which is also less than the previous year's result by just 1%. But the grand maison doesn't need to worry about falling interest in their watches.

At least if the results of the low-key Children Action 2024 charity gala auction are anything to go by, where Patek Philippe unveiled yet another very last version of their steel Nautilus Ref. 5711/1500A, featuring a hand-decorated case and bracelet with impactful ethnic motifs inspired by New Zealand's Maori and a deep gray dial with a barely discernible hint of brown.

The watch came with matching Patek Philippe cufflinks with their own reference number: 205/9057A-010. The model sold for CHF 6.7 million (USD 7.56 million), which trumped the USD 6.5 million that was paid in 2021 for the Patek Philippe's Nautilus Ref. 5711/1A-018 with a "Tiffany & Co" dial. After all, the Children Action auction was held by Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo.

The third most dominant brand with 67 models sold (19%) was the independent watchmaker Audemars Piguet. Truth be told, the brand came sixth for overall sales USD 3,997,168. Audemars Piguet can find comfort in the fact that 17% more models by this brand were sold than in 2023. 

The honor of third place for the sales total went to F. P. Journe: 24 models by this master watchmaker raised USD 18,048,473 in the Genevan November sales, which is a whopping 109% up on 2023. This sharp spike in total sales can be attributed to the unique F.P. Journe Tourbillon à Remontoire d'Égalité prototype from 1993, otherwise known simply as the Tourbillon 15/93 by fans of Journe's creations.

This was only the second wristwatch ever fully handmade by François-Paul Journe, who subsequently decided to found his own company and begin launching his own watches, So this piece sold for CHF 7,320,000. Not only is this a world record for Journe himself, but also for all independent watchmakers.

Fourth place for highest sales total is technically shared by the previously little-known British watchmaker Derek Pratt, and the Swiss watchmaker with Danish roots Urban Jürgensen. The thing is that the Derek Pratt for Urban Jürgensen Detent Escapement Tourbillon with Remontoire in an oval case at auction Reloaded: The Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking, 1980-1999 was sold for CHF 3,690,000. 

Two Urban Jürgensen models ultimately delivered a terrific result of USD 4,301,558, generating an enormous 945% growth. The main thing to remember here is that this result will only ever be repeated if the Oval resurfaces at another auction. So you could say that fourth place really still belongs to the creative Richard Mille, whose nine watches (+80%) sold for USD 4,067,185 (+97%).

Overall, Mille's watches are doing simply wonderfully on the pre-owned market. The brand in seventh place in terms of their auction sales total is the Saxon A. Lange & Söhne, whose 26 (-7%) models sold for USD 3,855,221 (+76%). This is also a wonderful result, especially when you consider that the manufacture in Glashütte still doesn't make any active attempt to influence the results achieved by their models at the auctions.

The brand in eighth place was Breguet with 21 models (+5%), which raised USD 3,627,556 (+433%). This can be explained by the fact that the main brand of the once almighty Swatch Group was suddenly and dramatically left dumbfounded by their raised profile, whose models were snapped up at the auctions for sums that would have been unheard of only yesterday. 

For example, the top lot at Christie's Rare Watches turned out to be a perpetual calendar in a white-gold tonneau-shaped case: Breguet's No. 3218 Quantieme Perpetuel made in 1935 achieved CHF 1,920,500 (estimated to go for CHF 100,000 – 200,000).

We'd take this phenomenon with a pinch of salt, given that the Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek Jr. must have stepped in, having grown tired of hearing people laugh about auction sales prices for models by their flagship brand. While it may have looked crude, even negative press is still better than the total apathy they'd received before.

Once again, our advice to Breguet's owners would be to seize the moment, and begin actively working to ditch the unmarketable piece in the near future. The ten most expensive brands were rounded out by Cartier (USD 2.610 million) and Philippe Dufour (USD 1.727 million).

And while Cartier had to sell 30 models to achieve this sum, just one was enough for Philippe Dufour: a platinum Philippe Dufour Duality with the signature double escapement.

‘Data is like garbage...’

We're not sure that knowing the average price for a watch by one brand or another is of much use. In the words of Mark Twain: "Data is like garbage. You'd better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it." A Rolex can sell for USD 8000, USD 80,000, USD 800,000, or USD 16,000,000. But nevertheless, it's customary to reflect on such data. So here are the top ten most expensive watches. Prices are given in USD.

• Urban Jürgensen        2,150,779 (+1990%)

• Philippe Dufour           1,726,928 (+90%)

• F. P.  Journe                 752,020 (+117%)

• Richard Mille:              451,909 (+10%)

• Breguet                        172,741 (+407%)

• Patek Philippe             164,914 (+13%)

• A. Lange & Söhne      148,278 (+90%)

• Rolex                            104,393 (+58%)

• Cartier                           86,986 (+125%)

• Audemars Piguet        59,659 (+45%)

Ones to watch here are the growth of Cartier, F. P.  Journe, Philippe Dufour and A. Lange & Söhne. Sales growth for Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Richard Mille is also consistently gradual. And stability is key when looking for an indication of performance. Soon we'll provide our idea of more useful data on the performance of specific models seen as the supporting pillars of the entire pre-owned market.

Converted figures provided here are accurate at the time of this report's publication on the analytical web portal EveryWatch.com.

Credits provided by: www.phillips.com, www.sothebys.com, www.christies.com