What is happening in reference to the emergency unleashed by the Coronavirus, which started in China and spread to our country from Germany and inevitably involved, predictably, all ofWestern Europe and the United States, has changed or is changing our habits.
But under these circumstances, paraphrasing the words of Albert Einstein in the aftermath of the Great American Depression of '29, out of a moment of great crisis come great opportunities and ideas that, if channeled in the right direction, can propel even the improvement of our own lives.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that last Saturday, March 21, the famous watch auction houseAntiquorum, founded in 1974 in Geneva and with decades of success behind it, kicked off the planned and long-awaited "Vintage & Contemporary Watches" anyway by taking advantage of the Internet connection tout court, in complete compliance with impositions by the Swiss authorities to limit gatherings in enclosed places.
The result? Excellent, demonstrating that now even with the limitations in place to contain the spread of Covid-19, the Internet is a very valid and powerful tool for sharing these events. After all, for some years now the world's most famous auctions have been exploiting the Internet or even the most common telephone line, to beat their prestigious items.
Access to the auction followed the classic canons of such cases. The event started at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, for obvious time zone reasons, especially for participants who were at the extremes of the planet. The whole thing was run from an empty room in the headquarters of the prestigious Geneva house and broadcast live from the site. Participants and guests accessed the site through encrypted access security modes, and at the end of the auction the total recorded well over 3 million Swiss francs out of the total 294 lots available.
Delving deeper into the details later, for lovers of these events and especially of vintage watches, pocket watches were initially hammered out, including a striking selection of Vacheron Constantin . The highlight, however, was a rare Patek Philippe pocket watch with perpetual calendar and minute repeater, which was awarded for a decidedly interesting sum!
But as is often the case in auctions, the most hotly contested and high-value lots featured as well some Rolex and gods Patek Philippe, although a few Audemars Piguet entertained and enthralled all participants in the session.
So despite the Covid-19 emergency, life goes on and must go on with the technology that supports this delicate phase of our lives. If anything, it should be noted that despite these difficulties, the vintage watch market continues.
Other prestigious auction houses, in fact, such as the historic and celebrated Sotheby's, founded in 1744 by the legendary Samuel Baker and with branches all over the world, have long since set up a section devoted entirely to the auctioning of lots online, but the methods of proposition are different from what was reported earlier.
Sotheby 's in fact borrows the eBay method, thus displaying items on its site for several days and participants can bid to win them until closing. The latest online auction started last Tuesday, March 17, and ended on Thursday, March 26, auctioning off 185 lots with varieties of highly sought-after contemporary wristwatches, as always from the world's leading luxury brands.
But Sotheby 's offer in this case was not the usual mere, online sale: participating meant having an opportunity to jump the waiting list and acquire a Patek Philippe Nautilus stainless steel 5711 or 5712, as well as a Rolex Daytona Zenith from 1988 and a Rolex GMT Master Pepsi 1982, both no longer available for purchase and rapidly increasing in collectability!
The next one? Wednesday , April 1 through Wednesday, April 8, and it will be delicious, with only 19 lots on the launch pad and consisting only of vintage watches with Rolex Explorer, Daytona Paul Newman, Date Just, Cellini, Milgauss e Submariner plus some Audemars Piguet Royal Oak!!
But even in Italy there are those who have equipped themselves for the new logic. For example, Bolaffi Auctions can boast of a good result of lots awarded last March 25 with the first online auction of the new year, although online sales are not exactly the core business of the prestigious house, having launched two in 2019, and the lots involved watches of medium-low prices with a few exceptions.
So a market, this one of online sales, that the new restrictions imposed by most Western governments to safeguard public health has not only not seen a decrease in the amount of business, but has confirmed the awareness, if not even increased, that investing in watches even as a safe haven asset, pays off big time!!!
We at Bonanno Jewelry had written it inearly 2020, buying a vintage timepiece is and remains an investment of undoubted value, in economic terms and beyond. Moreover, the recent export figures for Swiss precious artifacts, which see numerical growth just since January '20 in contrast to the stable fall of the Hong Kong market (falling for the fourth consecutive month due to the well-known political tensions), confirm that the watch market continues to score interested figures.
