How to buy a vintage watch in an online auction

During the pandemic, auction houses large and small beefed up their online presence. With collectors unable to gather in collecting capitals of the world like Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong, bidding moved online. But it was no less fierce.

Sales have soared at auction houses over the past couple of years. Various auctioneers and observers have pointed to the fact that registered bidders for auctions have jumped from a couple hundred to a couple thousand in a span of five years.

To use another set of figures to illustrate growth: In 2020, the four largest watch auction houses (Phillips, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Antiquorum) had total sales of $350 million. In 2021, this number grew to $600m. No doubt, much of this growth is thanks to the increased accessibility and online presence of these houses. According to one house, Phillips, 52 percent of their lots were sold to online bidders in 2021.

So how can you get a piece of the online watch auction pie? Nowadays, it’s about as simple as creating an account with your favorite e-commerce site (of course, with some AML and KYC thrown in).

Before we look at a few of the largest watch auction houses and what they’re doing online, a few words on bidding at auction.

Here’s what we cover in this Auction Guide:

• What to know before bidding on watches

• The “Big Three” Auction Houses

• The Traditional Auctions

• The Upstarts

• eBay

• Conclusions

By the way, we cover watch auctions all the time in our weekly newsletter — lots to buy, lots to avoid, and every else — so subscribe to the weekly newsletter to stay up-to-date on all the most important news.

What to know when bidding online for watches

Here are are a few things that newer collectors might not realize about auctions:

• Auction Houses Work for the Seller. You still have to do your homework. Often, these auction houses stand on reputations hundreds of years old, but remember that their client is the seller. Their job is to get the seller the best price they can for the watch they’ve commissioned to auction. You can listen to Eric Wind and Ben Clymer talk about this more on Hodinkee Radio.

• Condition, Condition. So yes, always read the condition report. But know that the condition report might not tell the whole story. It might not be entirely transparent or forthcoming about potential issues with a watch — re-dials, re-lumes, pieces that have been frankensteined together.

• Ask Questions. Want to know more? Reach out to the auction house and talk to a specialist. They’ll send more information, photos, whatever you need to feel comfortable with the lot you’re interested in. But of course, see bullet #1 above.

• Buyer’s Premium. Most traditional auction houses charge a 25 percent buyers’ premium — a fee that buyers must consider when bidding up a lot. Online-focused upstarts might have lower fees, but they still must be taken into consideration when bidding.

• Bidding Online. Yes, these auction houses allow online bidding nowadays. But there can still be some benefits to bidding via phone or in person. The specialist you work with can signal to the auctioneer not to sell a lot while you mull whether to make another bid. They might let you “split” a bid, i.e. bidding a lesser increment than the previous bid, which an online platform might not allow.

• No Reserve. “No Reserve” means that any bid, no matter how low, will take the lot. If a lot isn’t indicated as “no reserve”, it means the seller has set a “reserve price” and if bidding doesn’t hit that price, they won’t sell the watch. Auction houses will often put no reserve on a lot to get some fierce early bidding on a lot; but if that doesn’t happen, look out for “No Reserve” lots as potential deals.

This podcast with John Reardon and Eric Wind, both former auctioneers, covers a ton of ground about auctions and is a must-listen for anyone interested:

The ‘Big Three’ watch auction houses

In watches (and outside of watches), there are three big auction houses: Christie’s, Phillips, and Sotheby’s. Since Aurel Bacs took the helm of Phillips in 2014, it’s become the market leader in watch auctions. In 2021, the Phillips watch department did more than $200 million in sales, a first for a watch auction department. Christie’s wasn’t far behind, also crossing the $200m threshold. Phillips has sold some of the most noteworthy watches of the last decade, including Paul Newman’s Paul Newman, the “Bao Dai” Rolex, the Tiffany Patek Nautilus, and others.

While Phillips focuses on hosting a few flagship physical auctions a year in Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong, Sotheby’s and Christie’s strategies are more varied. These two houes host physical auctions throughout the year, but also have online-only auctions. Sotheby’s started doing weekly online-only watch auctions during the pandemic and it’s largely stuck to this cadence, turning out an impressive amount of lots during the year.

For all of these auction houses though, “physical watch auction” is a bit of a misnomer. Nowadays, the majority of bidding happens online. I recently attended Phillips’ New York auction, and most of the back-and-forth bidding happened on a screen as online bidders battled it out for desirable lots. It was a ton of fun when two in-person bidders dueled it out, but that was a rare occurrence.

One more tip: Also pay attention to the “jewelry auctions” and jewelry departments of these houses. Typically, you’ll see a few watches there too.

If you do plan on bidding online for a watch, give yourself at least a week or so to register. These auction houses ask for ID and some other verification to make sure you’re legit before you can bid.

The traditional watch auction houses

The number of auction houses around the world is actually too big to count, but there are a few others focused on modern and vintage watches worth mentioning. You can count on all eyes always paying attention to what’s happening at Christie’s, Phillips, and Sotheby’s, but there’s a chance that a lot or two might slip under the radar at some of these auction houses.

Antiquorum

The original watch auction house. Watch auctions as a concept started back in 1974 when legendary auctioneer Osvaldo Patrizzi opened Antiquorum. Nowadays, it still does sales numbers that roughly compare with those of the big three auction houses. Flipping through an Antiquorum catalog is truly a treasure hunt: The total number of lots routinely reaches 500-plus, often with a focus on vintage watches. In their catalog, you’ll find watches, of course, but also loose dials, spare parts, old watchmakers’ tools, neon Rolex signs. Anything a watch enthusiast could ever want to collect. Like the other auction houses, Antiquorum has also introduced online watch bidding. Antiquorum hosts a number of online-only and physical auctions across the world every year.

Monaco Legends

Since vintage watch dealer Davide Parmegiani took the helm of Monaco Legends’ watches department a few years ago, the house has slowly grown. Last year’s 88 Cartiers auction was a huge hit — Tyler The Creator showed up, and bought at least one watch from the look of it. Parmegiani is also pals with collector John Goldberger, so you might see some of his vintage watches on auction at Monaco Legends too.

Dr. Crott Auctioneers in Mannheim, Germany, Ineichen Auctioneers in Zurich, Artcurtial in Paris, Bonhams (which recently acquired Skinner and Bukowski’s), Watches of Knightsbridge in London, Wright Auction in the United States, Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, are all regional auction houses with large watch auctions throughout the year too. As an American collector, I have the most fun hunting small-time American auction houses for vintage watches. Hunting at domestic houses can also save a shipping headache (yes, remember to factor in shipping and shipping insurance fees when buying too).

An American tangent. For Americans looking to attend an in-person auction, New York is your best bet. Twice a year (usually around June and December), Sotheby’s and Phillips host auctions in New York, usually a couple of days apart. It can make for a fun weekend event.

Online Aggregators

Two sites to find many auction houses in one place are LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. These sites act as aggregators, compiling lots from hundreds of auction houses across the world. They even offer a platform for online bidding — though note they’ll usually add another couple percent to the buyer’s premium.

The online auction upstarts

Over the last few years, a number of online-only watch auction sites have launched. The most notable is Loupe This, a joint venture of Eric Ku and Justin Gruenberg, both recognized experts and dealers. The young platform recently announced it crossed $10,000,000 in total sales, a worthy achievement for the American startup.

Unlike large auction houses, Loupe This takes just a 10 percent buyer’s premium on every sale, in addition to a $500 listing fee (for this fee, they take the watch and do the watch description, photography, and everything else). Since launch, they’ve listed all kinds of rare Rolex, Cartier, and other vintage, neo-vintage and modern watches on their site.

A Collected Man is another established name that has begun to experiment with auctions. Known for selling high-priced neo-vintage and independents, it’ll be interesting to see the platform continue to experiment with the auction format. It’s kind of a joke in the community that, as soon as ACM posts a rare watch for sale on its site and Instagram (“LIVE.”, for those who know how the post always begin), the watch is sold immediately. Holding an auction helps to solve this problem, while also helping ACM identify the true market price.

eBay watch auctions

Of course, eBay is still the behemoth when it comes to all things online auctions. Watches, cars, sneakers, whatever you need — you can bid for it on eBay. Nowadays, eBay proudly advertises their “Authenticity Guarantee” for all watches sold on its platform over $2,000. If you’re into sneakers, it’s very much the StockX model: After a watch is sold, it’s shipped to eBay for authentication before being sent to the final buyer. It’s not perfect, but the Authenticity Guarantee certainly provides peace of mind for buyers, especially of newer watches, to know they’re not buying a fake Rolex or Omega. Authenticity Guarantee isn’t as reliable on vintage watches, and you should still check with a vintage watch expert before buying a watch on the Wild West of eBay.

That said, I’ve probably had more fun hunting for watches on eBay than anywhere else. I’ve had my biggest wins — and losses, to be sure — on eBay. I’ve got a number of eBay alerts I check almost every day, and I’m always following their online auctions to track results. Be warned though: The days of finding a steal on eBay are largely gone. Nowadays, any good collector or dealer is also checking eBay on a regular basis, and any watch worth collecting is bound to be tracked by others. But watching those online auctions shoot up in price in the last few minutes is still exciting. Even still, the most vintage online auctions are happening on the ‘Bay.

Bringing down the hammer

No matter where you’re bidding, the point is the same: Buyers still must do their diligence. Sure, some of these platforms are trustworthy, with respected dealers behind the scenes, but buyers must do their own work as well.

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Filed under: online auctions, online watch auctions, vintage watch auctions, American watch auctions