The Business of Watches [035] Christie's Remi Guillemin On The Fundamental Shifts In The Auction Market Driving Record Prices¶
Published on Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000
Christie's head of watches for the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East breaks down what's driving the run of all-time-high results for some models and discusses why this auction market is fundamentally different from the post-COVID surge of 2022.
Synopsis¶
In this episode of The Business of Watches podcast, host Andy interviews Remy Guilamont, Christie's Head of Watches for North America, Europe, and the Middle East, about the current state of the watch auction market. Despite global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, 2026 has seen record-breaking auction results, driven by a fundamental shift in collector behavior. Unlike the 2020-2021 period when modern luxury watches and "hype" pieces dominated, today's market focuses on quality over quantity, with collectors seeking rare, historically significant timepieces from independent watchmakers and vintage pieces that cannot be found elsewhere.
Guilamont explains that approximately 30% of buyers at Christie's watch auctions are new customers, with millennials and Gen X representing the largest demographic groups. The market has matured significantly, with buyers now prioritizing craftsmanship, hand finishing, innovation, and provenance over brand status alone. Transparency and authenticity have become paramount, with collectors demanding detailed service histories and expert verification. Christie's has responded by curating fewer pieces (around 900 watches in six months versus higher volumes previously) but achieving similar or better total sales figures. The private sales sector has also grown exponentially, offering collectors privacy and flexibility. Looking forward, Guilamont identifies undervalued opportunities in neo-vintage pieces from the 1980s-90s, early independent watchmakers like Frank Muller, and brands like Breguet and Gerald Genta, while expressing optimism that the current market strength—driven by genuine scarcity and collector sophistication—represents a healthier, more sustainable model than previous boom periods.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Andy (Host) | Welcome to the business of watches, the Hodinkee podcast, where we talk to the players and go behind the scenes to find out what's making the watch industry tick. Today I am in Geneva with the head of watches at Christie's for North America, Europe and the Middle East, Remy Guilamont. Merci. Thank you for joining me. Welcome to the business of watches. Thank |
| Remy Guilamont | you, Andy, for having me. Excellent. So |
| Andy (Host) | we are basically halfway through the year in terms of the auction season. We've done the spring. It has been records all over the place. What's going on with uh watch auctions? Because you know, the rest of the world is a little uncertain. Um there's lots of geopolitical conflict, but the watch auction market has proven very strong. What's happening? |
| Remy Guilamont | Well, you're right, Andy. Um twenty twenty-six has been a very incredible uh start of the year. We ended uh twenty twenty-five quite strong, you know, but twenty twenty-six has been you know full of positive surprises. What we're seeing overall is a shift from uh collectors who were buying you know uh luxury wristwatches to you know, really focusing on things that are quite specific. So it's really quality over quantity, or for example, instead of buying a brand, collectors are focusing on very specific references. So super interesting. And it also is great because collectors are you know focusing on very different watches in general, uh wristwatches from multiple brands. Uh we've seen and we'll probably discuss, you know, we we we've seen great records from um different watchmakers, pocket watches as well. Very interesting for sophisticated collectors that are focusing on great products. And the geopolitical events that we've seen throughout the world, they I think have had an impact for sure on the world of watches, but uh for auction we have seen a focus on masterpieces and watches of great quality, which is why we've been able to see, especially at the top of the top end of the market some quite impressive results. |
| Andy (Host) | Talk about how this market is different than you know the last time where things were this strong was you know 2020, 2021, right in the middle of um COVID when you know it seemed like the entire world uh woke up to their interest in mechanical watches. How is it different this time? How are the buyers different? How are the references and the categories different and and volumes as well? |
| Remy Guilamont | twenty one, uh you know, and the post COVID era, as you rightly mentioned, was kind of a very unusual environment. You had a moment where so many buyers uh of luxury items and collectors as well wanted to focus you know on on on buying wristwatches and luxury items in general. As a result, you had a great amount of demand on modern timepieces, status wristwatches, and we we we saw this at auction uh and results of modern watches started spiking because there was kind of scarcity in the primary market, uh which reverberated in the secondary market. |
| Andy (Host) | So we mean you know, things like but you know, Patek Nautilus, Rolex Daytona, Otomar PK Royal O classic, uh or what we think of as the um hype desirable watches. |
| Remy Guilamont | Uh what we're seeing today is quite different. We have, you know, historical collectors and collectors who have been buying extremely regularly in the industry, you know, focus on very specific timepieces. They focus on very specific time pieces which are virtually unattainable and cannot be found on any given retailer or chrono twenty four. Exactly. So as a result, when such timepieces come about auction or the private sales, there is competition and the collectors understand what they're doing, you know, they're quite well advised uh and as a result the watches end them performing nicely uh what is interesting as well is the depth and knowledge of the collectors who are buying they're really not buying a brand anymore they',re buying a watchmaker, they're buying uh hand finishing, enameling. So there's a diversity of criteria that enters into the collector's mind today when they wish to acquire a very special object. You know, we briefly discussed the beginning of 2026. The results that we've seen at auction, of course uh we speak about Francois Pauljourn, |
| Andy (Host) | we can speak about the results of Patek |
| Remy Guilamont | Philippe, Oudemar Piguet as well, who you know brought records for a monopusher chronograph uh in our Christie's auction. |
| Andy (Host) | I mean, yeah, no, I mean let's talk about those pr you know, you could talk about your book and and and and what you sold. I mean, um how that reflects, you know, this new sentiment, this new era we are in the auction market. |
| Remy Guilamont | Yeah. Well, I briefly mentioned these names, but we also saw incredible results, for example, for Frank Muller wristwashes, very early pieces uh that we had in the catalog, or Daniel Roth, uh Jurben Jurgensen. So each of these specific watchmakers or brands have an appreciation or appreciated by collectors for different reasons and it goes back to the fundamentals, innovation, hand finishing, ingenuity when it comes to crafting an incredible complication, has the watchmaker impacted or is perceived as impacting the world of watches? You know, all of these things come into the criteria for a collector to decide to bid on a specific wristwatch rather than what we could have seen in the past being okay, this wristwatch uh retails for 50,000. The secondary market is 250. Is it interesting for me to buy it or not? So that I can wear a wristwatch that is identifiable as a luxury wristwatch. So it's a completely different world that we're in, which I believe is much healthier for the perennial of the watch market in general and the world of auctions, of course. |
| Andy (Host) | It's interesting. And indeed, you know, the collector is become more refined or you know, the the taste and the and the interest has become r more refined, more educated. Are there new buyers in the market? Are there new whales as it were? Um and is there new money flowing? |
| Remy Guilamont | So of course the watch auctions for auction houses, and you know I'll speak for Christie's because I work at Christie's, are a huge source of new customers for auction houses. So roughly in a watch auction at Christie's, there is about you know 30 something-ish percent of new customers per sale globally, wherever it's in New York or in our great Hong Kong auctions as well. So it is higher than other categories, and therefore watches being so discussed right now. You know, you open your Instagram, you see uh celebrities uh wearing uh incredible wristwatches, you know, on a daily basis. Now it does bring a lot of new customers in the world of watches, which is also great. in terms of buyer demographics, in our auctions, millennials and gen X are the most represented generations in our sales globally as well, which I thought is quite interesting. And it also shows that these young customers are arriving in force in the industry and this is also quite positive for the future of the category as a whole. You're seeing new people come in and you know they're here to stay. And you also see that these customers, if we as we discuss, they study the timepieces they want to buy. They're connected with Instagram, with WhatsApp, they discuss, they love the sense of community in the world of watches. So they discuss all the catalogs. As soon as they receive them, they share them. So there is this entire community effects, which is absolutely great for new collectors to have feedback about the pieces that you know are in front of them, understand them, and also you know, to kind of keep uh the the the industry connected |
| Andy (Host) | and you know this strength and these you know continuous records that we we're having though i mean you know it wasn't that long ago that it was twenty twenty one and then 2022 and, that's where the market turned. You know, what's different this time though? And, you know, the fact that the market seems quite interested in independent makers, makers of, you know, um model lines that there aren't very many around. Does this have anything to do with trusting the provenance and the authenticity of, you know, vintage Rolex or or other major brands that you know we've obviously there's been certain high profile problems with in the past. |
| Remy Guilamont | Yeah I think the most important thing for collectors to bid at auction is transparency. They want to understand what they're bidding on and they don't want to have any surprises once the lot is purchased. So the reason why we sell around you know uh 900 watches uh in six months at Christie's globally is because we really curate our auctions and we carefully select the time pieces that we want to display in catalogs when we know that you know they they are irreproachable of quality. So this is something we really strive for and it has a tremendous impact, which goes back to what you were saying. Modern watches or neo vintage watches have been made, you know, in a fairly recent era. Watchmakers in general have great archives. Uh they're able to trace back, you know, services, what has happened with the watch. We sold uh Francois Paul Joan Tourbillon uh reference tea from uh 2001 in the Geneva sale. And it is exactly what you said. Collectors before the sale, you know, just before bidding, we're asking, Remy, how many times has the watch been for service? Has something happened to it? You know, do you know what they did during the service? So we really had to do a thorough, detailed analysis of the condition of the timepiece. Thankfully, watchmakers have created archives as well, or at least some of them. So we were able to trace back, you know, uh what happened to the wristwatch from A to Z and it ended up doing uh over three million dollars versus an estimate of five hundred thousand, which it would would not have been the case if we had absolutely zero information on the timepiece. Right. So transparency is important. Describing the wristwatch and egg the e expertise provided on the wristwatch is of massive importance as well, and it directly impacts the auction results uh or results in the center secondary market. |
| Andy (Host) | And you know, you talked about that volume that you do, you know, about nine hundred watches that you've done so far. That is I think how does that compare to the volume at the sort of peak in twenty twenty one twenty two? |
| Remy Guilamont | Yeah so the it is actually a much lower volume because we do less online sales you know in order to uh really make sure that we create everything to the best possible, you know, of our capacity and to offer fresh, you know, to the market product to our clients when we do our standalone sales or our our live auctions in uh Geneva, Hong Kong and and the US. So less volume, but roughly equal numbers, which is quite, you know, interesting. |
| Andy (Host) | Yeah, no, I mean it speaks to the um sort of quality and pricing of the pieces that you're doing uh at the moment. But you know, when a piece sells at auction and makes headlines and it's records, this is a an event, there's not anything that's much more public than a uh watch auction. In fact, by law, anybody can attend a a watch auction. It's a it's a public event. But another part of the business is private sales, and these are sales we don't hear about. Talk about what the the the private sale market is for auction houses right now like Christie's. And you know, tell me what, you know, why would someone sell a watch privately or buy a watch privately |
| Remy Guilamont | Private sales is part of the business that has exponentially grown in the past three years at Christie's fur watches. It is, as its name describes it, quite simple. Uh if a collector has a wristwatch that he wishes to sell, you know, he can do it privately via our private sale, via where Christie's watch's department, and we will find connect him with a buyer. So the advantages of doing a private sale is privacy. If a wristwatch is extremely recognizable, you know, we are operating in a small world uh where everyone, you know, is connected, knows, you know, who's buying what, etc., etc. So it enables a client to sell, for example, without being seen, which is enjoyable for some. It can also be a question of calendar if a client doesn't want to wait for an auction uh you know he can sell at any point if he's not willing to take a risk you know of putting the watch at auction he can decide to uh you know sell at a fixed price at private sales. So it is a different solution that we can offer our customers. However, they are complementary uh more than uh competitive, which is important. |
| Andy (Host) | Yeah. And I mean and so y you've seen uh growth on the on the private side and and it then that's continuing to grow and so it's at that's adding to the to the overall uh sales. |
| Remy Guilamont | Exactly. Um you know, it it has uh definitely grown tremendously in the past seasons. I think it's also linked to the buyers that we have or that have entered the market that are looking to uh build collections, maybe younger generations that could be perceived as a bit more impatient. Uh they want, you know, things to happen fast. So we have a solution that is tailored for uh every customer, which is quite good. I would say, however, that every private cell customer that we have purchase at auction, you know, which is uh is quite interesting. Uh that nothing beats the discovery of uh a new fresh to the market wristwatch when you open a catalog or when you log on the the the auction's website and and discover it for the first time. |
| Andy (Host) | I mean I want to get back to the current strength of the market and maybe sort of underline, you know, what we think is different this time. I mean, obviously, you know, as we said, prices surged, you know, some called it a a bubble. You know, there's various aspects of the market. There's the auction market, there's the secondary market, there's the primary market. But I mean, you know, everybody saw a surge in interest and prices and then a um pretty quick fall off. You know, is it different this time? You think it's more healthy, it's more sustainable. I mean, let's talk more about that. Why? Aaron Powell |
| Remy Guilamont | First of all, the pieces that are performing an auction are radically different. There's a difference between perceived rarity for a model that is still being sold by a watch manufacturer, you know, and still listed in the sale catalogs, and a wristwatch that is not sold anymore and that we know has been made in X quantity. The wristwatches that are performing amazingly well at auction today are unique creations, creations that have been created on an extremely small scale, or extremely high quality vintage timepieces, which are you know uh extremely difficult to source today. So the dynamic is different because while in the past, for example, we would sell Tiffany Blue fifty seven eleven uh zero eighteen and stainless steel with the Tiffany stamp, you know, and the turquoise blue dial for three million Swiss franc, you would see another one uh the week after on chrono 24, as you mentioned, or in a competing auction house, or in the hands of a secondary uh market retailer. So it's a different dynamic. Today the washes that we sell well cannot be found easily at all. We spoke briefly of the Audemar Pigue uh mono pusher that sold for a record price in Geneva is one of the handful one |
| Andy (Host) | of two or three exactly uh time |
| Remy Guilamont | pieces that were made by Audemar Piguet at a time where Audemar Piguet had a handful of watchmakers available. One of the wristwatches of the two timepieces known, one of the wristwatch, which is in a different configuration, is at the Audemar Piquet Museum, the other one was in our auction. So, you know, if you are interested in having this wristwatch, in essence, this is it. |
| Andy (Host) | But at the same time, we've seen records and you had a record um for a Cartier crash earlier this year. I mean, you know, when I think of Cartier, I think of a big volume. I mean, in fact, they're the second biggest watchmaker by sales. Um why is Cartier doing what it's doing in the auction market right now. |
| Remy Guilamont | Cartier is performing incredibly well. The Cartier crash phenomenon is due to a multitude of factors. Aesthetical, uh, it's quite a stunning wristwatch. It is a wristwatch that is not necessarily complex, you know, so fairly easy to to comprehend for collectors of art, design, jewelry, wristwatches, so it speaks to a an important pool of customers. And at the same time, it do the Cartier Crash is a stunning wristwatch made by one of the most reputable watchmakers and also not easy to access uh retail at all. The race watch that you mentioned, the Cartier Crash London that we had in uh in Geneva uh that sold for over two million. We're talking about the peak of the pyramid. Cartier London watches again are extremely scarce in production volume. The wristwatch that we had was of impeccable quality. A customer that would like to acquire one of the most important Cartier Crash wristwashes ever made, would have to purchase this timepiece at auction should he be interested in it. |
| Andy (Host) | Yeah, no doubt. Just sort of random question here. I mean, um we we talk about new money coming into the market and we talk about sort of you know changes in taste. Mark Zuckerberg, um the founder of Facebook and the the head of Meta um uh has become a um a quite a high profile watch collector and um and shown to have some pretty refined and interesting taste. When you know a billionaire class of that level, you know, is part of the collector community, is this a good thing or |
| Remy Guilamont | It's a great thing because it brings um great visibility on uh the market, you know, attracts new customers, you know, uh tech clients for example, that wouldn't have thought about buying wristwatches, see uh Mark Zuckerberg buying uh uh uh or wearing uh a superb sixty sixty two in ping gold, uh stelinid dial, you know, something very specific made from the 50s or a 1518 pink on pink, you know, had a a a gala or I can't remember I saw a picture. It gives great confidence to potential clients uh in the market, but it also brings a lot of visibility, which is great, especially when from what I see his his tastes are so uh varied from uh in the group of |
| Andy (Host) | force uh Fp Jorn |
| Remy Guilamont | uh you know, it it it it''ss very varied from independent wash making to the peak of vintage washmaking as well. And I think it's only positive for the wash industry. |
| Andy (Host) | But um you know, doesn't this suggest now though that if you know if we if we have more of this and more of that that type of collector, that the traditional collectors are are gonna get priced out. I mean, uh you know, will go the way of the the very high end top echelon m art market. |
| Remy Guilamont | Yeah. So I think the watch industry has such a variety of watches to offer that there are still watches that are undervalued in today's market. We speak about records and very important models, you know, which is great, but there are so many wristwatches, for example, in the neo-vintage era, let's say, you know, like in the 80s or the 90s, that still represent tremendous value versus uh what they can potentially bring in the future uh should collectors spend you know uh a proper amount of time studying them. A lot of collectors do the jump from buying retail modern watches straight to vintage. They you know and then you know later go to neo vintage. But the reality is neo vintage wristwatches will represent you, know for, the most part, many pieces represent the peak of mechanical washmaking. And at the same time, they still represent low production volumes. So there's a lot of value uh in the wash market. We mentioned pocket watches as well. You know, uh who isn't touched by a beautiful enamel uh pocket watch, you know, or who isn't interesting in owning one day a beautiful minute repeater that chimes extremely well for you know ten thousand dollars, fifteen thousand dollars from a maybe a non-reputable watchmaker, but the quality can be there. So you know, I think the variety of the watch market still offers a lot of uh choice for uh collectors entering the watch market. |
| Andy (Host) | And can you be at all more specific on where you think value is? I mean, you know, where you you know if you had to point to |
| Remy Guilamont | It's because of that, but one of the first names that comes to my mind is Breguet. You know, you still have uh beautiful tourbillon wristwatches by Breguet or perpetual calendars, annual calendars that are so elegant and timeless, you know, that's uh you know, with beautiful guy dials, for example, that represent great value, pocket watches, an infinite number. You know, we just spoke about the importance of the watchmaker versus you know the brand. I remember um I think it was a year ago now we sold uh a Matetiso open face split second pocket watch minute repeating with brigand numerals for around fifteen thousand dollars. And it was chiming like you know some of the most reputable brands, you know, that you can think of. So yeah, that that could be it. Frank Muller, the early Frank Mueller wristwatches, I think represent uh represent great value. The list can belong. |
| Andy (Host) | Yes. An another interesting brand, |
| Remy Guilamont | you know, uh for uh sports wristwatches, for example, uh that make quite cool cool chronometers. Abel. |
| Andy (Host) | Yes. Not too expensive yet. |
| Remy Guilamont | Yet quite cool wristwatches too, and Gerald Janta and so much more. |
| Andy (Host) | It's in well, Abel. I mean, um we've certainly seen efforts in the collector community to raise the interest, raise the awareness and uh Let me ask you a a a question to sort of you know what your job is and what you do every day. Every time I'm in the airport, I see you. So um it seems. And um and you know, w what is involved in being the head of watches at Christie's for the regions that you cover? I mean, what what is your typical day or week like? |
| Remy Guilamont | So you know what's funny is I I started working at Christie's. Uh it was literally my first job in uh 2013 as an intern. I knew when I was at university that I wanted to work at uh in the world of watches and uh I thought auction houses were a great place to learn about watches and you know the full history of it, modern, past, etc. etc. What I didn't realize actually was that how global and international you know uh auction houses could be. So, you know, throughout the years, um my role became you know quite different from an intern. I became a cataloger, which is basically researching wristwatches, you know, writing footnotes, um, providing you know as much expertise as I could at the time uh with specialists, which led me to to w I was able to do this in Christie's Hong Kong and then Christie's Dubai. Then I became uh gradually a watch specialist, uh, which drove me to, you know, I was based in Geneva at that time already. It basically enabled me to travel all around Europe to meet collectors, sellers, you know, work with my team, you know, to ensure that the prices were correct, the quality was great, create uh an auction in Geneva or abroad and gradually uh I took a bit more of responsibilities and now my uh my role is to uh create the sales with highly talented team in Geneva, in Hong Kong in, Dubai, and in New York, uh to the best of our abilities and ensure that we are uh assisting our clients uh to the best possible capacity as well, uh buying, selling. This is what we do. Aaron Ross Powell |
| Andy (Host) | And so that involves a lot of travel. So you were interested in watches, but you didn't uh necessarily know that you'd end up uh being a um a global traveler uh in this job. |
| Remy Guilamont | No, but that was a very positive surprise. Um you know seeing how global the market was and is definitely makes our day-to-day activity uh thrilling. You're meeting different collectors who are interested in different things, you know, who are from different cultures as well. So it's a really interesting and pleasant uh way to do business. And you're also meeting clients who are passionate about an object or about a specific field. So you know, to to be working in a field that you are passionate about with collectors who are passionate about the same thing really makes it worthy. And um, you know, I I I've I've never woke up in uh a morning, you know, uh without a smile or not wanting to come, you know, to to the office. So this I'm very thankful for. |
| Andy (Host) | That's a pretty good thing. Uh indeed. And so well, I mean, uh you know, let's talk about what kind of watches that you've collected and you know, if you c I don't know how specific you wanna be and and what you're interested in these days in terms of your person I think you're wearing a longa right now, it looks like but um but uh yeah |
| Remy Guilamont | little language uh with uh aventurien dial. So yeah, I think um you know we we we discuss so many washmakers. I think Languay is also uh part of the brands that represents uh uh good value uh long it's |
| Andy (Host) | done done well at in my at market lately but the |
| Remy Guilamont | specific pieces have done really well but you can still find the language one for uh less than retail uh for sure and the quality of the wristwatch is um astonishing um so i think you know this is uh uh a brand that's interesting in terms of interest personal interest i i i like to connect with a wristwatch for my 30th birthday. I was fortunate enough to uh acquire a crayon anywhere uh wristwatch. You know, it was at a time where my options were very simple, uh, for you know 57-11 you had to pay 250,000 euros or Swiss franc, uh, you know, which was uh of course out of reach. So I decided to empty my bank account on uh uh crayon anywhere, uh which I thought you know brings an incredible level of complication. It has you know the uh astronomical uh complication which is uh really cool and animates the dial and uh level of finishing which uh I couldn't have gotten for uh uh from from retail you know for from a watch manufacturer for the same amount of money and at the same time, it was the early years of Crayon. So the production was and is still quite limited. And then uh vintage, of course. my dream watch when I started working at Christie's is uh reference one thirty in stainless steel Patek Philip with a sector dial but um you know I still need to work really hard to to potentially buy one one day. And |
| Andy (Host) | so that's that's still the grail? For |
| Remy Guilamont | me, yeah, in terms of vintage watches, I uh I think it's astonishing. And the difference between the yellow gold reference 130 and the steel one thirty is quite cool. Uh the case of the stainless steel pieces, the lugs are bigger, so it gives it a more contemporary and athletic style, um which uh you know suits me suits works quite well in the current atmosphere and also you know the the size of wristwatches uh for me I think the maximum the the biggest watch I could wear is like thirty nine millimeters. So I I like smaller cases rather than big cases. Personal tas |
| Andy (Host) | Interesting. Interesting. And um you know, you you talked about regions and all the places that you um that you travel, obviously you cover the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, w you know, what has changed right now in terms of strength and size and and of of market regionally? |
| Remy Guilamont | In terms of new customers and uh activity of buyers at the highest level, I think to this first part of uh of the year we've seen a strong activity from America's Middle East. Even I |
| Andy (Host) | mean, despite in some way, you know, places like Dubai are have been, you know, can really kind of come to a halt in terms of tourism. |
| Remy Guilamont | Yeah. But I it is true, especially you know at high levels, which is really great. Uh Hong Kong has been very active, Southeast Asia as well. Um, so this is a bit you know of the of the the the the percentages you know in terms |
| Andy (Host) | Interesting. Interesting. And you know, I want to ask you something. I mean, um obviously, you know, Christie's sometimes is is involved in this, but I I've heard, you know, and and we talked about watches selling at retail for a price or selling above or or or below retail on the secondary market. What those brands whose watches sell above retail are trying to do is not sell their watches to people who will then come to Christie's or any other private seller and and flip them. Do you think brands are doing a better job of that? And do you have any ideas as to how they could um you know prevent this? |
| Remy Guilamont | The cellar landscape for us today is uh very different than what it was in the past. I think honestly it doesn't happen anymore that we have someone leaving a shop uh coming straight to Christie's to list a wristwatch at uh at auction. So, you know, they must be doing a a very good job. I think uh collectors today who are granted uh very special pieces have long standing relationships with the watchmakers or the brands you know that they buy from, this holds it tremendous value. So also another thing is we we communicate with watchmakers when we offer wristwatch, you know, for research purposes, uh for you know, s uh verification verification that the timepiece is, you know, what it's supposed to be, etcetera, et cetera. So, you know, collectors are aware of this, which is why I think w we're seeing today that we're really focusing on uh things vintage or things, you know, exceptional, you know, neo vintage, vintage, and uh as a result, the flippers have disappeared. |
| Andy (Host) | Interesting. Looking forward, you've got a charity auction coming in November, I think it is, is Watches for Ella, which you will be running. You were the last uh host auctioneer of OnlyWatch as well, which is no longer or is not um operating right now. But you know, what where are we in terms of the of um the charity um market or the you know, these kinds of auctions and events? I mean, yeah, it at one time you know, I think I think the m it w it's still that uh Patek that's sold at only watch at one point for you know is the most i expensive watch ever sold at auction um charity auction. But where are we, you know, in terms of uh of uh of of charity auction? |
| Remy Guilamont | So the Ella Charity uh auction is an initiative that started in twenty twenty-three between a conversation with Guy Alba, its president and Francois Henri Pineau, who today is our chairman of Christie's, and Francois Henri Pineau was and is uh historical supporter alongside Ziné Dizidane for uh Watches for Ela. |
| Andy (Host) | Who is offering his uh first cartier in the auction indeed, yeah. |
| Remy Guilamont | For sure, not it will be very, very fun. So the initiative, I think the idea started in twenty twenty-three. At the time, as you say, we were uh hosting the only watch auctions with Luc Petavino, uh, who was aware that the Ela initiative was you know being discussed and uh and you know like was uh being uh organized. So I think the the Ela auction that we're going to see in November is a nice evolution from the one we saw two years ago. |
| Andy (Host) | Two years ago, yeah, because it was Yeah, |
| Remy Guilamont | which was the strongest public fundraising initiative ever done by Ela. It raised uh roughly 800,000 Swiss franc, which is really great for the charity. They had eleven participants. This season, I believe the number is hovering around the 20 participants, which is great for them. And it shows you know the relationship that Gialba has with uh the watchmakers that are offering the wristwatches. I think what we are going to see, I'm you know, still like discovering the timepieces that are not finalized for the most part yet, is uh very interesting prices and very interesting pieces at you know different price points. So it goes back to what we were saying when we were saying, Okay, are we going to be priced out by the market? Well, watchmakers are still, you know, offering wristwatches at different price points, and this will be a great opportunity for collectors. Aaron Powell |
| Andy (Host) | And then on the um the regular auction |
| Andy (Host) | side, I mean, should we expect more of the same in terms of category and and interest uh in terms of the timepieces that we're gonna see for you? What can you tell us about uh what we might see for the rest of the year? |
| Remy Guilamont | I think so. Hong Kong is doing a great initiative. It's uh an anniversary uh for Christie's in Asia. Um, so there will be a thematical auction. So the theme is Christie's Asia. The catalog will encompass, you know, very important watches, um, you know, from different eras, which is really great. Uh, the Hong Kong team is working really hard to uh offer you know the best to collectors. So this will be end of November. Geneva, I think we'll see more of the same, tightly curated auctions, you know, at varingy price points so that everyone, you know, has the opportunity to bid uh on beautiful wristwatches, masterpieces as well, uh, from you know, the most uh renowned manufacturers, uh including FP Jorn, of course, with a very special set uh that we will be able to offer uh in November, which uh you know I think will be a nice surprise. And then New York as well. You know, New York is uh it is a great story because in twenty twenty-three, if I remember correctly, our live sale was around uh four point five five million dollars all in. Uh last season in uh June we did seventeen point six million dollars. So great growth. Of course, the American market today is extremely strong, but it also shows that the department today is able to uh attract incredible watches. We had a 3448 uh prototype wristwatch with red dot indication that sold for uh roughly three million dollars, and we had also very nice Oudemar Piguet jump hour wristwatch made in 1928, which had an estimate of 30 to 50,000 Swiss francs sold for over 1 million dollars. So it's great to see how globally strong the auctions are and I think we'll see more of the same in the upcoming season. |
| Andy (Host) | And so you don't see at this point um any lack of enthusiasm or strength uh in the market at the uh certainly at the moment there's more of uh more to come you think |
| Remy Guilamont | yeah a great barometer for us is the private sales uh that we're able to do just this week we were able to sell a very uh nice and important Patek Philippe wristwatch at you know prices that carry on what the season uh just brought us. So the interest from collector is still there and I I f believe it's going to continue and uh it will be more of the same in the upcoming season. |
| Andy (Host) | Well, Remy Guilemont, the head of watches at Christie's for the Americas, Middle East and Europe. Thank you for joining us on the Business of Watches. |
| Remy Guilamont | Thank you so much for having me. And |
| Andy (Host) | that's the Business of Watches for this episode. We hope you enjoyed. Please head on over to Hodinkee.com where you can join the discussion and leave any comments or questions about this episode or the business of watches in general. Who knows? We might even answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening and see you next time. |