Omega watch fetches record US$1.4 million at Geneva auction

Nov 15 , 2017

The price for the timepiece – a prototype with a tourbillon – is the highest yet paid for an Omega, and further establishes Phillips auction house as a force to be reckoned with

An Omega wristwatch sold for US$1.4 million in Geneva, a record price for the brand, as upstart auction house Phillips challenges larger rivals Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the market for vintage timepieces.

The sale marks the first time Omega has achieved a price of more than US$1 million in an auction, according to Phillips, which raised a total of 23.9 million Swiss francs (US$24 million), just beating Christie’s. Sotheby’s trailed behind with 5.2 million Swiss francs in an auction where one in four lots went unsold.

Vintage watch demand has been booming, illustrated by Phillips’s record US$17.8 million sale last month of a Rolex that belonged to actor Paul Newman. The smaller New York- and London-based firm is aiming to corner the market in vintage timepieces as auctioneer Aurel Bacs raises its profile. Still, the 83 lots that went unsold in Sotheby’s auction showed that bidders are becoming more restrained, leaving timepieces by Rolex and Vacheron Constantin untouched.

The Omega was a prototype with a tourbillon that Phillips had estimated was worth as much as US$207,000. Phillips said the piece is the only watch that was fully built in a series that was planned but never produced.

This is the second time a Sotheby’s watch sale has struggled this year. In May, the auction house couldn’t find a buyer for the most intricate Patek Philippe timepiece ever made.

Such reticence wasn’t seen at Phillips and Christie’s, which sold almost every lot they offered. Just a day before the Sotheby’s auction, Christie’s raised 10.8 million Swiss francs in a sale of timepieces, also in Geneva, to raise money for research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Those watches were donated directly by their manufacturers, including brands such as F.P. Journe and Audemars Piguet.

The Geneva autumn auction season continues on Tuesday night, when Christie’s will put a 163ct flawless De Grisogono diamond under the hammer. On Wednesday, Sotheby’s will auction a pink diamond estimated to be worth as much as US$30 million.

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