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Tamara de Lempicka, La Belle Rafaëla (1927), estimated at £6 million. Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's

Earlier this week, Sotheby’s announced Tamara de Lempicka’s La Belle Rafaëla, from 1927, for its London modern and contemporary evening auction on June 24. The work has been owned by the consignor since 1997 and was included in the recent Lempicka retrospective at the de Young Museum and the Houston MFA. It is estimated at £6 million. The record auction price for a Lempicka painting was set at just above $21 million in 2020; then, a year and a half ago, another work sold for nearly $15 million, confirming that collectors are willing to pay sums in that range for some of the artist’s works—a significant step up for her market. Earlier this year, a portrait made more than $8 million, which is about where Sotheby’s has placed the estimate for this rare nude. Meanwhile, Christie’s is holding only a day sale this season, on June 26, in keeping with the house’s long-standing goal of reducing the London night sales seasons to winter and fall. Phillips is holding a combined evening and day sale on the same day.

It’s luxury and design season in New York, and for the past couple of weeks, the auction houses have been filled with everything from Harry Winston jewels to a Lalanne menagerie, a series of eye-wateringly expensive Patek Philippes, and the original prototype Birkin bag. It’s okay to admit these luxury sales can be a bit more fun than some of the fine art categories. The mood is light, the price points are accessible, and you can even try on the jewelry. Also, the results this past week should give the market confidence, too. Notably, there are signs of a recovery, or at least stabilization, in the luxury watch market. Altogether, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips sold 359 watches for a total of $56.3 million across their live auctions. That’s down from the equivalent season in 2022, a period of post-Covid, easy-money hysteria, when they sold 456 watches for $71 million. But it certainly suggests the market is catching some uplift after a couple down years as prices come back in line with pre-pandemic trends. Notably, although volume is down this season compared to June 2022, the average lot value then and now is about the same, suggesting that there are more buyers at this level than there are rare watches for them to buy.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Introducing FRAME Sotheby's—A first-of-it's-kind collaboration that brings together two cultural forces through craft, heritage, and timeless style. Discover the full collection now at FRAME.

Phillips, the market leader in this category, sold 100 percent of its 143 lots over two days, for $25 million. The auction house reported bidding from 70 countries, but American participation was the strongest, making up half of the registrants. This was an uptick from last year, when Americans made up 40 percent of registrants—possibly because American collectors now want to buy locally to avoid customs duties. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s curated sale of only 110 lots totaled $20.4 million—the second-highest total for a watch sale at Sotheby’s. With 1,300 participants, the sell-through rate was 98 percent, the highest rate for a watch sale at the house since 2012. The top lot of the season was the Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 “Second Series,” which achieved $4.3 million. It’s a remarkable result. Yes, the same watch sold two years ago for $7.7 million. But Asher Rapkin, the co-founder of Collective Horology, an independent watch retailer, cautioned against comparing watch prices for these one-of-one examples to the levels they were achieving two years ago, when the masterpiece watch market was absolutely on fire coming out of Covid. The price drop for the Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 is not so much an indication that the market is low now; it’s a measure of how abnormally high it was then. While the WatchCharts market index is down about 33 percent since its peak in 2022, it’s still up 63 percent since 2017. In the past six months, the index has leveled off, suggesting that the market has found its floor and is beginning to gather momentum again.

The highest prices of the week were all achieved, no surprise, by Patek Philippes. Sotheby’s sold a 1954 pink gold minute repeater, Reference 2542/1, originally retailed by Gübelin, for $1.6 million against an estimate of $1.25 million. The top lot of Phillips’ sale was a Ref. 1518 perpetual calendar chronograph, circa 1950, considered one of the most important watches of the 20th century. Offered at auction for the first time in nearly four decades, by a collector who’d never taken it out of his vault, it achieved $1.45 million, more than three times the estimate of $400,000. The second-highest price at Phillips was for a rare stainless steel Calatrava Ref. 570, which made $1.07 million, more than five times the estimate. At Christie’s, a pink gold Patek Philippe minute-repeating perpetual calendar wristwatch sold for $1.2 million. The delta between the estimate and the hammer price is often reflective of auction house sales tactics as much as buy-side demand. This was the case with two off-catalogue Rolex Daytonas with rainbow sapphires, each estimated at $250,000, that sold at Phillips and Christie’s this week. The Phillips watch with the pavé dial, from 2023, made $365,400, and the Christie’s watch with the black dial, from 2019, made $406,400. Rapkin told me the prices indicate the market is where it should be. “Generally speaking,” he said, “watch estimates at the large auction houses are comically low.”

Bulgari, Vacheron Constantin, Serpenti Scaglie model, ref. 7728 (manufactured 1970). Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd.

Robust demand for women’s watches is pushing these numbers up, too. A Patek Philippe Ref. 7000R-001 ladies’ minute repeater, estimated at $180,000, sold for $349,250. The lot at Phillips’ sale that most outperformed was a circa 1980 Bulgari Tubogas in 18-karat gold with a slightly off-center, pear-shaped watch face that achieved $170,180, more than 40 times its estimate. Christie’s also sold a Bulgari watch—an exceptionally rare and early example of the iconic Serpenti bracelet watch, dating to 1970. With a movement by Vacheron Constantin and green, red, black, and white enamel scaglie links against the yellow gold tubogas ground, it sold at four times its estimate for $277,200. It’s more evidence that women are becoming much bigger players in the watch market, as I discussed earlier this year when I profiled Brynn Wallner, the watch journalist behind Dimepiece. Rapkin, who is a member of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève Academy, said that in recent years he’s seen an increase in not only the volume of submissions for ladies’ watches but also in the innovation and creativity of those submissions. He said the philosophy for watch designers used to be “shrink it and pink it” to attract women buyers; now they’re taking women’s watches more seriously, creating manual ladies’ watches with complications, like the Patek Philippe minute repeater at Phillips, and not just automatic ones.

Another trend emerging from this week’s sales is the demand for watches from F.P.Journe, which has only grown since Phillips sold one for $8.4 million in Geneva this past November. Phillips offered 11 watches by the brand, all of which sold for multiples of their estimate. A Tourbillon Anniversaire Historique “T30” soared to $889,000 against a low estimate of $180,000. A Répétition Souveraine with a smoked sapphire dial went for $685,800 against an estimate of $200,000. And a Harry Winston Opus One Chronomètre à Résonance, with almost five carats of diamonds, made in collaboration with F.P.Journe, achieved $838,200 against an estimate of $300,000. At Christie’s, an Octa Calendrier, circa 2010s, sold for $453,600, three times its estimate. It’s a “Black Label” model, meaning it was made in extremely limited quantities and offered only to existing F.P.Journe owners. A platinum Chronographe Ruthenium, circa 2008, tripled its estimate to sell for $302,400, while a titanium Chronographe Monopoussoir Rattrapante, circa 2021, more than doubled its estimate to sell for $151,200.

François-Xavier Lalanne, Grand Rhinocrétaire II (2003). Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s

The design auctions this week performed more or less as expected, with the best works far exceeding estimates and many lots remaining unsold. But there were some surprises. The top price of the week—a truly jaw-dropping result—was François-Xavier Lalanne’s Grand Rhinocrétaire II, a monumental gold patinated bronze rhinoceros that opens into a writing desk, which sold for $16.4 million against an estimate of $3 million. It’s the second-highest price ever for the French artist at auction, surpassed only by a unique example of a more elaborate Rhinocrétaire that sold at Christie’s in 2023. Overall, Sotheby’s 138-lot Important Design sale made $29.6 million and was 79 percent sold by lot. A Diego Giacometti plaster frame that last sold at auction at Christie’s in 2012, for €70,600, made $1.1 million against an estimate of $150,000. Ceramics also continue to perform above expectations, with all 14 Birger Kaipiainen chargers selling for prices beyond estimates, and all 24 Axel Salto ceramics finding buyers, including two “Sprouting Style” vases that made more than $400,000 each. Sotheby’s dedicated Tiffany sale made $6.2 million, with only two of the 50 lots going unsold. The Stillman Memorial Window from the Long Island home of Ann and Robert Fromer made $2.4 million against an estimate of $1.5 million. In the end, Christie’s three-panel Goddard Memorial Window proved more desirable to buyers, more than doubling its estimate of $2 million by selling for $4.3 million. Overall, Christie’s 95-lot design auction made $15.4 million and was 76 percent sold by lot; in addition, the sale of 34 lots from James D. Zellerbach’s San Francisco residence made $8.1 million. The two curved versions of Alberto Giacometti’s plaster albatrosses sold for $3 million and $2.8 million. Bidders seemed satisfied that a plaster ceiling light described in the catalogue somewhat vaguely as “supplied by” Jean-Michel Frank was, in fact, by the designer himself, and bid it up to $277,000 against an estimate of $50,000. His Aragon cerused oak low table sold for $819,000, more than double its estimate of $400,000. Christie’s also set a world auction record for Frances Elkins with a pair of her tree form floor lamps that sold for $107,100. Phillips’ sale totaled $4 million and had the best sell-through rate of the three houses, with 91 percent of the 85 lots finding buyers. They set a world record for Judy McKie with her Fish bench, which sold for $406,000 against an estimate of $150,000. Bonhams’ design sale is coming up on Tuesday, and will feature some of the same big names as the other houses, like Tiffany, François-Xavier Lalanne, Pierre Jeanneret, and Lucie Rie, as well as some refreshing ones. Avant-garde works by Virgil Abloh, Tom Dixon, and Rick Owens will be offered as well. The top lot is a pair of Diego Giacometti benches estimated at $400,000. Paul Cocksedge’s Poised steel table, estimated at $30,000, from 2013, took him a couple years of intensive calculations—factoring in gravity, mass, and equilibrium—to get right. The outcome is a one-ton single sheet of 2-centimeter-thick steel, curved in a way that seems to defy physics.

Thanks, Julie. Have a great weekend, we will catch up with you on Sunday. M

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