In spite of the adversities, Only Watch went ahead in Geneva on May 10 before the large auction house sales.
Out of all the May auctions in Geneva, you could say that the Only Watch charity auction was the biggest success story. The auction more or less repeated the results delivered in 2021 despite last year's scandal sparked by defamatory accusations against the auction's founder Luc Pettavino.
Pettavino voluntarily postponed the auction and then took the decision to hold it just a month after the redeeming financial audit was published. So there was no time for a PR campaign to get bidders warmed up, and no traditional world tour to exhibit the most interesting timepieces.
Sure, not all brands had enough patience to wait for the controversy to be resolved. Fifteen brands who had previously played a crucial role in the auction withdrew their pieces, including Audemars Piguet, but top influencers stayed.
They included Patek Philippe, F. P. Journe, Richard Mille, Rexhep Rexhepi, Laurent Ferrier, and Kari Voutilainen. A total of 47 lots were sold compared to the 62 lots that had been announced last fall. By the way, Patek Philippe didn't offer the model dedicated to Honorary President Philippe Stern which had initially been promised for this auction.
It was replaced by a perfectly worthy minute repeating wristwatch in a steel case measuring a sizable 44.8 mm in diameter. This case, which also measures 12.03 mm in height, will undoubtedly become one of the world's most prominent repeater wristwatches. The unique Patek Philippe "Only Watch" Grande and Petite Sonnerie Ref. 6301A-010 was created based on Ref. 6301P.
The "Only Watch" Ref. 6301A-010 belongs to the Grand Complications line but is also a member of the Rare Handcrafts collection. Exquisite swirling flinqué enamel defines the teal-colored guilloché dial with twelve baguette-cut diamond indexes.
The watch is powered by the same manually wound manufacture GS 36-750 PS IRM caliber, which beats at a frequency of 25,200 vph (3.5 Hz). It provides a 72 hour power reserve for the watch movement and 24 hours for the strikework.
The power reserve indications for these barrels are symmetrically aligned at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. The experts probably expected it to raise around CHF 20 million, so they published an estimate of CHF 1,500,000 – 1,800,000. They were a quarter of a million off. The lot sold for CHF 15.7 million.
The second most expensive lot was Richard Mille's Talisman Origine RM S14 jewelry piece, inspired by a relic: a golden pendant in a wooden receptacle which resembles a heart-shaped shield. The pendant which dates back thousands of years was made by one of the tribes who once dwelled in the Swiss Alps.
Mille crafted the modern piece from a complex combination of varied intricate symbols in briarwood, gold, titanium and rhodonite, threaded on a metal and rubber string. And instead of a shield-like receptacle, the modern-day timepiece is housed in Mille's signature tonneau-shaped case in rose gold and titanium, which measures 77.25 mm × 46.77 mm × 13.10 mm.
It houses an in-house automatic skeletonized CRMT5 tourbillon movement. The case is equipped with two winding crowns in a balance which most likely symbolizes the sun and moon. The one-of-a-kind golden wooden relic has also been created with great accuracy, secured with a shield receptacle at the end.
This Swiss cultural artifact was given an estimate of CHF 600,000 - 800,000. But passionate fans of Richard Mille value originality, hence why the lot fetched an incredible final sales price of CHF 2.38 million.
The third most expensive timepiece was a watch by the indie watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi, who offered unique vintage-style version of his Chronomètre Antimagnétique model for Only Watch with a steel caseback that can be unscrewed, and an integrated Faraday cage to block electromagnetic fields.
This lot was only expected to raise CHF 100,000 - 150,000, but bidding for the watch went on for even longer than the fight for Patek Philippe's piece, and it achieved a final sales price of CHF 2.1 million. That's the effect a trend can have!
François-Paul Journe, who had been expected to come second, ended up behind Rexhepi. Journe's global premier of a watch in a 42-mm Tantalum case on a Tantalum bracelet, Ref. CFB Chronomètre Bleu Furtif, sold for a tidy sum of CHF 2 million.
This very beautiful model has matte blue hour and minute hands that blend into the dial, making it almost impossible to tell the time by viewing the dial from a 30-degree angle. It was given an estimate of CHF 200,000 - 400,000.
A watch which raised a surprising amount was the Krayon Anywhere watch: a calendar watch with an extremely original day/night indication by the contemporary watchmaker Rémi Maillat, who won the Best Watchmaking Innovation Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) in 2018, and the Calendar and Astronomy Prize in 2022.
His Krayon Anywhere for Only Watch went for CHF 440,000. And overall, collectors paid extra attention to independent watchmakers at this year's Only Watch, as if they were looking to stock up on lesser known watches for the future. This hunt for lesser-known names is also like going all in on a wild card.
The Moser x MB&F Panda model sold for CHF 380,000, and the Petermann Bédat x Auffret Paris Chronomètre D'Observatoire went for CHF 240,000.
Both Atelier de Chronométrie's piece and the watch by Furlan Marri x Dominique Renaud x Tixier Secular Perpetual with Atelier de Chronometre went for CHF 130,000. Konstantin Chaykin's Joker Sandman made CHF 110,000.
This activity can't go unnoticed, because some of the timepieces trumped their pre-sales estimates a number of times over. Against the backdrop of the success enjoyed by indie watchmakers, the achievements of some major maisons paled in comparison.
The majority of models by these greats raised less than the independents. Probably the only result that can be hailed a success was achieved by Louis Vuitton's Einstein Automata, which sold for CHF 700,000.
Christie's second Rare Watches auction in Geneva took place a day later than scheduled — only on May 14. This was due to a cyberattack on the auction house's website. You get the impression that Christie's really offended someone who wants to take revenge.
Draw your own conclusions: first empty-worded preposterous accusations are leveled at Christie's good old partner and Only Watch founder Luc Pettavino, alleging he had misappropriated funds raised by the charity auctions. Then a group of hackers attack the website to derail Rare Watches and blackmail the British auction house into paying a ransom.
The hackers threatened to disclose the personal information of Christie's almost 0.5 million clients (including names, dates of birth, nationality, confidential government document details, and card numbers). Slander and blackmail are the most primitive and outmoded means to deal reputational damage.
And management at Christie's responded in exactly the right way by refusing to entertain any form of blackmail. Of course, a certain number of clients were lost due to the incident, but not so many. But the impact it had on the Rare Watches sales total wasn't very positive: CHF 22,821,050 for 164 lots.
Of course, the most expensive watch at Rare Watches was Patek Philippe's Ref. 1518 "Pink-on-Pink" with an estimate of CHF 2,000,000 – CHF 4,000,000, which sold for CHF 2,465,000.
Only twelve of these watches in pink-gold cases with pink-gold dials are known to have been made (the one at this auction was made in 1948). As you can see, the organizers had higher expectations, but the price achieved by this "Pink-On-Pink" was closer to its lower estimate.
Second place was also predictably occupied by the unique F.P. Journe platinum Vagabondage 1 model. The watch that came third was Richard Mille's fresh RM 66 "Devil's Horns" Flying Tourbillon. Mille's watch, which retailed for around USD 1,065,000, was auctioned off for CHF 1,071,000. So if you factor in the buyer's premium, it made a small loss.
The remaining lots worth mentioning include a rare Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 2526 made in 1957. The model itself may not be the rarest (approximately 360 pieces were made in rose gold), but this is a very beautiful example with a rare combination of a rose-gold case and a black enamel dial.
By the way, only a few hundred of these references have come into circulation among collectors and auctioneers: most owners love them and don't want to part with their watches. No wonder this one is often called the most beautiful Calatrava.
It sold for a solid CHF 680,400. The last time a pink-gold Calatrava Ref. 2526 with a black enamel dial was auctioned off three years ago at Christie's Hong Kong Legends of Time auction, it fetched HKD 5,250,000. So this model has gone up in value by around USD 100,000.
Other pieces of timeless value achieved lackluster results: Patek Philippe's Ref. 2499, which replaced the iconic Ref. 1518. This time, the perpetual calendar chronograph took fourth and eighth place with rather uncharacteristically low results: CHF 730,800 for the fourth series model from 1970 and CHF 428,400 for the third series model from 1972. They don't seem to be appreciated as rare.
Credits taken from: www.onlywatch.com, www.christies.com