The Phenomenal Price Rise of Philippe Dufour’s Watches
Philippe Dufour's watches are getting higher and higher valuations each year, and at the same time the watchmaker has decided to raise retail prices, creating a wave of discussion among collectors
A few weeks ago a post by @horology_ancienne sparked an interesting debate about the prices of Philippe Dufour's latest Simplicity line.
For us at WatchAnalytics, watch prices are one of the most fascinating aspects of watchmaking, so we couldn't shy away from talking about this topic.
In his Instagram post, the collector recounted that despite being a huge admirer of the Swiss watchmaker, he has never been able to buy a watch directly from him. He did, however, purchase a Simplicity from a second-hand retailer at a price described as "very reasonable."
With the introduction of the new Simplicity line, H.A. was able to get on the waiting list and to his surprise discovered that he had an allotment. Upon confirming the order, however, he discovered that the new retail price was CHF 650,000, a very high figure when compared with those of the first models. An increase deemed unreasonable, as reported within his post. Among the comments were those who thought this move made sense since Dufour first broke even in 2010 after a lifetime of sacrifice. Therefore he is now justified in cashing in this profit from a great deal of work. In addition, many believe that some of this money will be invested in the foundation dedicated to human needs that he is creating. On the second hand, this profit appears in a different light when one considers that Dufour cannot benefit from an income guaranteed nowadays to those who resell, with very high returns, his watches in the market.
On the other hand, basing its list prices on the market is a very risky strategy indeed because if things go well, high profits are achieved, but in downturns many problems would arise.
Ascribing value to artistic creations, in this case watches but they could just as well be paintings, is always an interesting discussion and one that opens up so many questions about how each of us ascribes value to them. However, what we are interested in understanding in this article is not whether such a price is justified or not, as much as trying to understand the possible trigger events that opened up the possibility of such an increase in the retail price.
Philippe Dufour is considered one of the greatest living watchmakers. After training among Jaeger-LeCoultre, Gerald Genta, and Audemars Piguet he decided to move on to work for Comor Watches. Following the latter's financial difficulties he bought its workshop and began working as a watch restorer for the watch auction house in Geneva at the "Galerie d'Horlogerie Ancienne" which has become "Antiquorum" today. He later focused on creating movements with "Grande Sonnerie" complications, but unable to afford to make entire watches himself, he sold his creations to Audemars Piguet, who ordered five pieces.
This event is what ignites an interest in him to create his own watch brand, and so it was that at Baselworld 1992, Philippe Dufour gave the watchmaking world its first masterpiece, the "Grande et Petite Sonnerie" wristwatch.
He then launched a second series of this model in 1999 with a retail price of CHF 600,000.
In the midst of the development of the second series of the "Grande et Petite Sonnerie," he created in 1996, the Duality incorporating a double regulator. The retail price was CHF 95,000 each, and an estimated 10 pieces were sold in total.
After another 4 years Dufour launches its third and so far last model. This time its efforts are directed at creating a more serialized model than the previous ones while trying not to lower the quality, thus the Simplicity was born. It was possible to choose between a 34mm and a 37mm case made of white gold, rose gold, or platinum and between a white lacquer dial and a guillochè dial.
Between about 2000 and 2014, Dufour made about 200 of these watches. The idea was originally to create a limited series of 100, but doubled it to 200 due to very high demand. The retail price in this case was about $35,000
For the 20th anniversary in 2020, a new series of this model was made with only 22 pieces, seven of them in platinum with a blue dial and the others divided between white gold and rose gold. A special feature of this series is that No. 21 is currently owned by Dufour.
The first model No. 00 was sold by Phillips for CHF 1,361,000, a price that when compared with retail 20 years earlier gives a first idea of how much the market has changed in recent years.
Last month another piece from the anniversary series appeared in A Collected Man, one with a blue dial and platinum case. Briefly the watch was sold with another million-dollar valuation: $1,300,000.
The UK-based platform is no stranger to astronomically priced Dufour sales, in fact it holds the record for an independent watch for public sale with the sale of a Grande et Petite Sonnerie offered for $7,630,000.
Another moment that marked the market for this brand was 2016 when the first Simplicity sold at auction appeared, two at Phillips and one at Christie's.
Since then, sales have been increasingly frequent at higher and higher figures until the explosion we are seeing in recent years.
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