The 11 Biggest Watch Auction Results from a Crazy Spring Season

As I’ve written here before, John Mayer’s weekly IGTV show, “Current Mood” is a goofy and casual 45-minute way for Mayer to hang out with friends and stream it to a few thousands fans every Sunday night. Over the last year, he’s even had some pretty good guests (and musical performances) from the likes of Halsey, Khalid and Charlie Puth (a noted Rolex fan himself). After taking a break to go on his world tour, Mayer’s back for season 3.

His first guest of the year was pop star Shawn Mendes, with a FaceTime assist from Camila Cabello. As everyone watch enthusiast knows, Mayer is the watch god; I’ve covered his collection at length here. While I tune into “Current Mood” because Mayer is sometimes moderately funny, I usually just like to see what he’s got on his wrist.

Fall 2019 Geneva auction results

November 17, 2019

Auctions

In the run up to the Geneva auctions, we posted our preview of some of the best lots from the three big auction houses, featuring (1) under the radar lots (under $10,000), (2) next up (under $100,000), and (3) top lots. With the results in, it’s time to take a look at how all the lots performed.

We already took a look at the results from Phillips’ Geneva Auction X, but below is a more comprehensive look at the results from Geneva’s big week.

Additionally, you can find the results for every vintage Rolex Daytona up for auction from Phillips, Christie’s and Sotheby’s here.

In general, I was glad to see some under-the-radar (at auctions at least, not amongst the collector community more generally) chronographs perform particularly well. Below, you’ll see a Zenith A386 El Primero, Movado 95M and Grana Split Seconds that all out performed estimates.

GPHG 2019: The winners and the upsets

November 10, 2019

News

Whether you like to call it the Oscars of watches or not, the fact remains that the GPHG is the watch world’s biggest awards event of the year. The prizes are highlighted by the “Aiguille D’Or” prize.

Let’s first acknowledge the problems with GPHG: Winning watches tend to be expensive and not necessarily representative of what people are actually buying from Switzerland; and because brands self-nominate, Patek and Rolex do not participate (they can’t handle the risk of losing!). That said, it’s still a wonderful evening to highlight some of the best of what’s come out of the manufacturers in the past year.

Previewing the fall 2019 Geneva auctions

October 27, 2019

Auctions

With the fall 2019 Geneva auctions fast approaching, it’s time we give a preview of what’s to come over the auctions from Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s from November 10-12. There are roughly 200 lots per auction, meaning there’s quite a bit to get through. As such, we’ll divide this preview into three categories: (1) Top Lots, (2) Next Up (pieces with estimates under $100,000) (3) Under the Radar (pieces with estimates under $10,000 or so).

We’ve already created our “Vintage Daytona Database” highlighting all vintage Rolex Daytona (and pre-Daytona chronographs) up for auction this fall, so we’ll largely eschew discussing those in this preview, though some are too good not too highlight.

While most previews start at the top and move down, we’ll do the opposite, starting with watches that are flying under the radar. Unlike in past previews, I’m giving quick hits of each piece, instead of going in-depth on a smaller subset of watches.