Auction update – talking watches with Tom Heap at Sotheby’s London

Welcome to this year’s first auction report. Over the course of the year, I will bring you not only the latest watch auction highlights but also insights from auction specialists and industry commentary. So, to get this year underway please enjoy reading my Q&A discussion with Tom Heap, Deputy Director, Head of Sales and Specialist - Watches at Sotheby’s London.

Sotheby’s needs little introduction as a global auction house with sales across the world in locations such as London, Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, New York and Paris. Over the years its well established Watch Department has sold some exceptional watches including the Patek Philippe, ‘Henry Graves Supercomplication’, no. 198.385, from 1933. Sotheby’s auctioned this incredible watch in November 2014 for Swiss Franc 23,237,000, (£20,429,270), including buyer’s premium.

In this article Tom talks about his role, the current watch auction market, emerging watch collecting categories, plus he lists some of the outstanding watches he has been involved in selling.

Tom: Thankfully, every day is quite different, and you never know where the next client meeting is going to take you. A lot of the time you end up on the road, visiting prospective clients at their homes all over the country – and often abroad – carrying out valuations or advising on collections. I spent a lot of time in Italy and in Switzerland last year, for instance, working on collections and liaising with local contacts. 

The balance of my time, however, is spent in our New Bond Street office in London. As a centrally located household name, we do get a fair number of “walk in” clients who turn up unexpectedly with watches that have often been hiding at the back of a drawer for years. 

Only half the job is sourcing however, with major watches auctions taking place nearly monthly during our Luxury Sales seasons, we are often on the ground in Hong Kong, New York, or Geneva. During a preview week for instance, a specialist will act as the eyes and ears for collectors not able to make the preview liaising on audio and video by phone. We also advise new and seasoned collectors on the condition and provenance of property coming up for sale, bid on their behalf during auctions and generally ensure the sellers’ interests are well looked after. Of course, we also advise buyers in similar ways – they are often the same people!

Tom: A particular stand out for me was the sale in November 2021 at our Geneva watch auction of an incredibly rare first-series Cartier Crash, London, wristwatch from 1970. I had recently started at Sotheby’s and was on the phones in the auction room. My phone buyer was the winning bidder with the watch selling at Swiss Franc 806,500, (£709,210), including buyer’s premium. This was and still is a world record price for a first-series Cartier Crash. It was a great way to start my career at Sotheby’s.

Tom: Also I was very happy to have consigned a watch which now carries the world record for a Rolex Day-Date at auction, selling for £989,000 in early 2022. Beating the previous Phillips record for Jack Nicklaus’ career worn Rolex Day-Date. We believe the watch to have been one of the earlier Rolex “Rainbows”, cased in white gold with a rainbow set sapphire bezel, it was one of a set of 5 or 6 pieces made for Sultan Qaboos of Oman.

Tom: Yes, it’s safe to say that the secondary watch market has cooled down somewhat. 2022 was a fantastic year. Since then, because of the economic climate experienced over 2023 and into 2024, most collector markets have been impacted in some way. At its peak in 2022 the secondary watch market focused, somewhat speculatively, on sports models which were easier to dip your toes into as a new collector and that contributed to a sharp rise in prices of those watches and the rest of the market. As the economy slowed down and interest rates went up less people were able to spend as much as they did in 2022. But this impact in the secondary watch market was more pronounced for the newest models rather than vintage wristwatches, whose sales are typically underpinned by passion (or in a lot of cases obsession!).

However, collectors’ passion for watches has remained constant. People haven’t turned away from collecting wristwatches and indeed new collectors are coming in. It has just become less speculative. Remember, that for very rare, near new watches, secondary prices are often above retail prices showing that the market has cooled, not crashed. If anything, the market has become more stable now. The secondary watch market as we know it today is relatively new in terms of collecting wristwatches, so we are going to see fluctuations and changes in tastes – and values – as it evolves over time. 

In assessing the value of a property, certain core factors remain paramount, however, such as provenance, rarity, and condition. The best examples still do very well at auction, particularly vintage pieces. A good gauge of the market can be found by tracking prices for watches such as the vintage Rolex Daytona, ‘Paul Newman Dial’ wristwatch found in references such as the 6264 and 6239. Also, the various iterations of the Cartier Crash wristwatch. Interestingly the market re-invents itself. If prices come off a bit, new collectors come in to buy watches that they were not able to afford previously and new collectors sometimes come with different tastes, helping to shape and shift the supply accordingly.

Tom: Yes, without doubt. For a while the vintage market was broadly seen as anything pre the early 80s and before Rolex introduced sapphire crystal. Now those parameters have changed. Vintage now encompasses what has been termed ‘neo-vintage’ which covers watches made in the 80s, 90s and early 2000’s. 

For a large group of collectors the sports watches of the 50s, 60s and 70s, personified by the Rolex Submariner, have and continue to be one of the go-to collector pieces to have. Now younger collectors have got involved and this period doesn’t have the same emotional resonance for them, we may see those models become slightly less valuable as a category over time. We also see this trend in car collecting. 

80s and 90s watch design and more dress watches like Cartier and Piaget, with their irregular and asymmetrical cases, from this period are of increasing interest. Also, Audemars Piguet watch designs other than the mighty Royal Oak are also gaining momentum. There is also a resurgence in well designed and crafted gem-set watches as we saw with our ‘Rough Diamonds’ live auction on 11 April 2024. The auction was held in a subterranean wine cellar in Geneva with all 24 lots selling in under one hour.

Additionally, collectors who already have their dream Rolex and an AP Royal Oak or Patek Philippe Nautilus are now looking for something different. Unusual or singular is the trend. That’s why brands such as Cartier have been enjoying a renaissance of late.

Banner © Photo courtesy of Sotheby's.