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Report: Geneva Spring Auctions 2025
Despite everything, including tariffs and a strong Swiss franc, the Geneva auction season turned out to be a strong one, with some of the strongest results being in the most surprising segments. The bigger winner this season was Phillips, which sold a bit under 200 lots for CHF43.4 million including fees, while also claiming the most valuable lots for the season, reflecting Phillips’ strong leadership and team. Despite being the market leader by some margin, the Phillips catalogue was arguably the riskiest as it included several high-value pocket watches and clocks – timepieces that not part of mainstream collecting today. Yet the gamble paid off with the most valuable timepiece this season being its Breguet Sympathique no. 1 that sold for CHF5.51 million. Christie’s achieved CHF21.2 million with a similar number of lots that were arguably more conventional in taste and format than at Phillips. One of its most valuable lots was a Cartier Crash “NSO” with a special order dial that sold for CHF736,000 – one of the biggest surprises of the season but proof that being eye-catching enough for social media is a big factor in desirability and value today. Interestingly, the Crash sold for exactly the same as the Richard Mille RM UP-01 Ferrari. The Crash went for about 15 times the original retail, while the RM UP-01 was about half of retail. The Crash NSO “nickele” grey. Image – Christie’s Over at Antiquorum, the tally was CHF10 million – from almost 800 lot...