Phillips Retains Auction Dominance in 2022. What Will Happen in 2023?
Analysing and comparing the performance achieved by major auction houses during the first Geneva auctions in 2023 with the results recorded in 2022
In 2022, Phillips reaffirmed its role as a leader in the global watch auction market with the highest value of total sales and an extraordinary two-year streak of 100 percent sales between Geneva, Hong Kong and New York, an unprecedented feat in the industry.
During the past year, a total of 11 auctions were held, where 1824 watches were sold, realizing total sales of about 227,000,000, if we include buyer's premium.
25 watches from 7 different manufactures were sold for more than $1 million, with Patek Philippe ranking first in both number of lots and amount achieved. Realizing a total value in excess of $39.7 million, these 25 watches alone represent 17.18% of the annual sales recorded.
George Daniels' extremely rare creations were the absolute stars at Phillips. The six watches auctioned totaled a value of $9.7 million, the highest figure achieved with such a limited number of lots. This manufacture also set a 2022 sales record for this auction house with the "Spring Case Tourbillon," one of only two wristwatches entirely handmade by Daniels himself.
Despite a market period with strong downward pressures, these annual results reveal continued growth, with the vintage branch leading the way. Watches still in production, which currently command the highest premiums in the retail market, were sold at auction at prices up to 40 percent lower than their respective values on the secondary market.
During this beginning of 2023, the market trend has remained bearish, although for some references reversals are observed that should not be underestimated. As far as the auction world is concerned, the situation is quite different and observing the results obtained from the first 4 auctions of this year done in Geneva by Phillips, Christie's and Sotheby's, one can see how much this market continues to grow year after year.
Analyzing the results that the brands achieved during these events we note that 16 watches from 4 different manufactures were sold for more than $1 million, with Patek Philippe taking the top spot in both number of lots and amount achieved. Realizing a total value greater than $33.4 million, these 16 watches alone represent 30.6% of the total sales recorded. Contributing to F.P. Journe's strong result was the thematic auction done by Christie's but in any case this brand is becoming more and more sought after year after year with auction prices constantly rising.
During this beginning of 2023 the market trend has remained bearish, although for some references reversals are observed that should not be underestimated. As far as the auction world is concerned, the situation is quite different and observing the results obtained from the first 4 auctions of this year done in Geneva by Phillips, Christie's and Sotheby's, we can see how much this market continues to grow year after year.
Analyzing the results that The brands achieved during these events we note that 16 watches from 4 different manufactures were sold for more than $1 million, with Patek Philippe taking the top spot in both number of lots and amount achieved. Realizing a total value greater than $33.4 million, these 16 watches alone represent 30.6% of the total sales recorded. Contributing to F.P. Journe's strong result was the thematic auction done by Christie's but in any case this brand is becoming more and more sought after year after year with auction prices constantly rising.
During these first auctions, 515 watches were sold for a total of $108,937,392, including buyer's premium. Going into more detail and analyzing the individual auctions we observe that the best result was obtained by Phillips with The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII, which with a total of 202 lots sold reached CHF 54.4 millions, averaging about 270,000 per watch. Then follows Christie's with the Rare Watches auction which sold 159 lots (98 percent) totaling $29,713,124, about 190,000 per watch and The Art of F.P. Journe auction with 40 lots sold (100 percent) and which totaled $14,120,810, about $350,000 per watch. Finally we find Sotheby's with the Important Watch auction that sold 118 lots (100%) and totaled $10,614,751, about $90,000 per watch.
All of these figures are important to understand how well the auction market has performed at great levels already in these early months of the year and in great probability could achieve even greater results than in the previous year.
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