Philippe Dufour Piece Smashes World Record For Most Expensive Independent Watch
Image via Phillips
At the Geneva Watch Auction: XIV, which ran from between November 5 to November 7 this year, a new record was set by auction house Phillips in conjunction with Bacs & Russo for “the highest ever sale total in watch auction history.”
Part of this is thanks to a Philippe Dufour watch, which snagged the title of top sale of the event as well as the most expensive Philippe Dufour watch ever sold at auction.
An “extraordinary bidding war” saw Lot 14, a Philippe Dufour Grande & Petite Sonnerie wristwatch, sell for an incredible CHF 4.75 million (US$5.21 million). Besides its earlier titles, this also makes it the most expensive piece by an independent watchmaker sold at an auction.
Image via Phillips
The yellow gold 1992 timepiece, movement number n°1, was the very first made by Philippe Dufour and also the world’s first ever Grande & Petite Sonnerie wristwatch. Phillips has likened it to “the first oeuvres by Da Vinci, Picasso or Basquiat: game-changing and genre-shifting works of a genius.”
Image via Phillips
According to the company, Dufour’s perfectionist tendencies in his watchmaking are highly evident in the fact that each Grande & Petite Sonnerie wristwatch took “close to two years” to complete.
He was, apparently, in the habit of “discarding the component and starting anew until the slightest angle on a screwhead would fit his exacting standards,” Phillips writes. “Where many would see ‘excellent’ in a finished part, Dufour would only see ‘very good.’”
Image via Phillips
Four Philippe Dufour watches were offered during this auction in total: the Grande et Petite Sonnerie wristwatch, Grande et Petite Sonnerie pocket watch, the Duality model n°8 and the Simplicity n° 57. Put together, these pieces went for a total of an impressive CHF 11.4 million (US$12.5 million).
Image via Phillips
“What we at the Phillips watch department and the watch collecting community around the world have always stated was today confirmed: watches are collectibles at the same level as Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art, fine motorcars and jewels, to name a few,” states Alexandre Ghotbi, Head of Watches at Phillips, in a news release.
“Today’s auction was a tipping point in the history of watch collecting and in the coming years the world will refer to a before and after Geneva Watch Auction: XIV.”
The top 12 lots in the sale, led by the Dufour piece, each sold for more than US$1 million each. One of the most surprising results was Lot 53: a 64-year-old Omega Speedmaster nicknamed the ‘Broad Arrow’, which went for around CHF 3.1 million (US$3.4 million).
Image via Phillips
“Did I expect a world record for a Speedmaster? Yes. Did I expect a $1 million bid so early? No. And I did not expect the bidding to go so swiftly,” recalls auctioneer Aurel Bacs to Robb Report after the auction ended. “I don’t even think there were 10 increments. I think it was two million, 2.5, 2.8, and then it sailed to the final price. Toward the end, the bidding increments became much slower, and it felt like somebody was squeezing out a lemon.”
In total, the 248 watches at the auction achieved a whopping CHF 68.2 million (US$74.5 million). This is almost twice as much as the previous record auction total of CHF 21.4 to 41.2 million.
[via JCK Online, all images via Phillips]
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