Phillips Sold 100% of the Watch Lots It Put Up for Auction in 2021
This Patek Philippe Ref. 2523 with an enamel dial sold for $7.8 million at Phillips Geneva in May, contributing to a record year for Phillips auction house.
"New York—Phillips has achieved a record year.
The auction house said its watches department saw a white glove year in 2021, meaning it sold 100 percent of the lots offered at auction across Geneva, Hong Kong, and New York, totaling $209.3 million, both of which are a first for it.
Its top watch lot this year was a Patek Philippe Ref. 2523, a yellow gold world-time wristwatch with two crowns and “Eurasia” cloisonné enamel dial that sold for $7.8 million in Geneva in May.
Those watch auction results are just part of a larger story for Phillips this year, in which global auction sales were up 35 percent compared with pre-pandemic 2019 to $993.3 million.
Private sales, meanwhile, were up to $208.2 million, pushing Phillips past the $1 billion mark in total global sales for 2021 to mark its most successful year yet.
Phillips’ total jewelry auction sales numbers for 2021 nearly doubled year-over-year, up 91 percent to more than $40 million.
The auction house achieved a record year for jewelry auctions in Asia, as per a separate press release, with two live auctions—“Jewels & Jadeite” and “Sensational Jewels from a Prominent Middle Eastern Collector”—achieving a combined total of $18.7 million, a 108 percent increase over last year.
In the “Treasures from Zambia: An Exceptional Emerald Collection” sale, a 56.87-carat Zambian emerald and diamond pendant necklace (pictured below) sold for $1 million to lead the sale.
Other notable highlights for the auction house in 2021 are that its sell-through rate was 91 percent and that 50 percent of buyers in both online-only and live auctions were first-time buyers.
Additionally, 100 percent of ... "
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