The pre-owned watch market demonstrated impressive growth last year, setting a number of world records and very forward-looking trends.
Let's begin by looking at the results of big names such as Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, the watch department at Phillips auction house. Their work paid off, and the annual auction total for watches sold in 2021 reached a record USD 209.3 million, which is 57% up on 2020.
At the same time, 27 lots went for over one million dollars, while only twelve models reached this mark back in 2019. Phillips has observed a steady increase in online sales: this was how over 10,000 buyers from 84 countries bought 58% of all lots. First-time buyers accounted for 40% of registrants. Younger bidders entered the scene with 30% of bidders under the age of 40.
Christie's annual sales total was slightly lower at USD 206 million, although up on their previous result of USD 80 in 2020. However, Christie's geographical reach proved more extensive than Phillips, with buyers in four more countries totaling 88, although first-time buyers only accounted for 20% of sales.
Phillips has observed a steady increase in online sales: this was how over 10,000 buyers from 84 countries bought 58% of all lots.
Sotheby’s also noted a younger clientele and more first-time bidders, and even overtook Phillips in this category at 58%. Most experts link both trends to growth in global market demand for pre-owned luxury watches.
Not only are they are seen as an attractive form of investment by collectors and major investors but also by ordinary market players. And wherever there's a risk, there's money to be made! Newcomers to Haute Horlogerie generate healthy competition and tend to take more risks.
The ability to recognize all the pitfalls which can lurk behind the scenes in luxury watchmaking, not only requires you to be clued in on the models and brands to watch, it takes years of honing intuition. A case in point would be the saga of the last Nautilus which has just played out in the public arena.
It all began in Hong Kong on November 24 at the Christie’s auction dubbed an Exceptional Season of Watches including the Champion Collection. That was where the fate of the fabled Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref. 5711/1А was decided with a dial in an unusual shade of olive green. In the end, the lot realized an astronomical USD 418,776!
What could possibly justify this sum? Cast you mind back to the beginning of the year, when the President of Patek Philippe & Co. Thierry Stern announced that production of the world's most coveted steel Nautilus 5711/1A wristwatch would be discontinued.
By deduction, the watch to be exhibited by the company at Watches & Wonders in April was supposed to be the final chapter in the story of this iconic manufacture timepiece. This news certainly didn't go unnoticed among collectors.
The opportunity to become the owner of this valuable asset with a potentially massive return was only open to the most prominent collectors, and even then, these VIPs were on a waitlist for ten years.
Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref. 5711/1А with a dial in an unusual shade of olive green was sold in an astronomical USD 418,776.
However, not even a week had passed since the luxury watch auctions in Hong Kong when Patek Philippe announced the company would be unveiling the Nautilus Ref. 5711/1A-018 version of the watch with a dial in the shade of Tiffany Blue (Pantone “1837 Blue”) to honor its 170th anniversary of partnership with Tiffany & Co.
And this really was going to be the last steel Nautilus. In the same breath, the watchmaker announced the release would be limited to 170 pieces and the double-signed watch with two logos on its Tiffany Blue dial would retail at a staggering USD 52,635.
There's no denying the novelty is stunning but the back story didn't turn out too pretty. Especially considering how it must feel to be the anonymous bidder who bought the "last" olive-green Nautilus for almost half a million dollars.
All of these plot twists reached their climax on December 11, as bidding got underway for the first piece in the series of Tiffany Blue Nautilus Ref. 5711/1A-018 watches at the Phillips New York Watch Auction. Over 400 people fought over the very last steel Nautilus with 95% of potential owners bidding online.
The watch went under the hammer for USD 5,350,000. The final price after the buyer's premium of USD 1,153,500 was USD 6,503,500. As a result, the Nautilus Tiffany Blue can now be declared the most expensive automatic three-hand watch in a steel case from a limited series without complications in the history of watchmaking.
The title for the most expensive watch in a steel case ever sold at luxury watch auctions is currently held by the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime minute repeater, which raised USD 31.2 million two years ago at the Christie’s Only Watch auction.
Patek Philippe and Tiffany donated all proceeds from the sale to an environmental charity called the Nature Conservancy. Even if you factor in the obviously significant and rather favorable cooperation between charity and the tax authorities — it's still unbelievably expensive! Moreover, it's possible that the watch will end up at the Patek Philippe Museum on 7 Rue des Vieux-Grenadiers in Geneva one day.
On the subject of Patek Philippe and Tiffany, we can't help but touch on a very interesting and important trend for watch collectors and investors which took shape last year. That trend is partnership. Unlike the example of Patek Philippe and Tiffany, whose partnerships can be referred to as more of a long-term friendship, many brands raised eyebrows in 2021 for entering full-blown highly intriguing partnerships.
We've discussed the stunning watch created by watchmaking great François-Paul Journe in partnership with the American film director Francis Ford Coppola, and a model called Kind of Magic by De Bethune and Kari Voutilainen.
However, the watch manufacturers Bulgari and H. Moser & Cie. created two other models in partnership with one of the most creative independent watchmakers and founder of the brand MB&F, Maximilian Büsser.
First-rate watchmakers who are more than opening to accepting such invitations include Svend Andersen, Konstantin Chaykin and Philippe Dufour, not to mention the masters of micromechanics Christophe Claret and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, for whom these partnerships are actually a way to earn a living. Timepieces created in partnership are twice as interesting for collectors because they're unlikely to last long.
Timepieces created in partnership are twice as interesting for collectors because they're unlikely to last long.
As a rule, they tend to be formed in times of uncertainty such as during a pandemic or an economic recession. A factor which contributed to this trend was the Christie’s Only Watch auction, which is similar to the Olympic Games in that it's not as important to win as it is to compete, where the funds pieces raise are altruistically shared by donating them to charity.
Will partnerships between manufacturers and watchmakers still be on-trend in 2022? This is one of the most interesting questions with an eagerly awaited answer that remains to be seen.