At the close of yesterday’s Christie’s New York Important Watches auction, the Stephen S. Palmer Grand Complication stirred up fierce bidding and brought in a final price of $2,251,750. In addition to redefining history, the watch adds three other distinctions to its resume: as a world record for a Patek ... Read more
Most of the time you have no idea who designed your watch. And yet, the first thing that attracts you to a timepiece is its aesthetic. Almost 100% of the time if you don’t like how a watch looks you won’t consider buying it, even if the mechanics are special. ... Read more
There’s no question watches are a hot category, particularly vintage watches, which have shown a surge in popularity. You know they’ve hit the big time when the Hollywood stars start wearing them out in public. In her movie “Stoker”, Omega partner Nicole Kidman chose an Omega jewelry watch to represent ... Read more
We are in the midst of auction season and auction is a great place to buy a watch. Since I work at Christie’s, I’m going to give you the lowdown on how the process works here, but it’s probably similar at the other auction houses. You might be intimidated by ... Read more
In the past few decades, ladies have been largely ignored in haute horlogerie. After the invention of quartz in the 1970′s, the prevailing “wisdom” was that women preferred the convenience of a battery-powered movement. No worry or cares about having to reset the watch and it would always be on ... Read more
Lots of materials are used to construct watchcases. Up until about a decade ago, most of them were made from stainless steel and precious metals. Now watch brands are incorporating other materials into their product, such as ceramic, carbon and even sapphire crystal to not only increase scratch resistance and ... Read more
The world did not come to an end as the Mayas predicted for December last year, and we have already entered 2013. Even when you don’t make New Year’s resolutions, this might be a good time to reflect on the current state of your watch collection. As with most collections, ... Read more
Since I’m in the auction world, I have the unique opportunity to interact with all types of watch collectors. Some choose to build around a certain theme, whether it’s chronographs, dive watches or within a particular brand. But I offer up another alternative for your consideration. What if instead of ... Read more
At Christie’s we think a lot about collecting watches. We don’t just sell watches, we assist our clients in building a collection, whether that’s one watch or hundreds—yes, there are folks out there bitten hard by the bug. While we do sell watches that cost in the several hundreds of ... Read more
How many times does an Omega keep up with Patek Philippe in price? While we think Omega is an awesome brand with some amazing watches and history, particularly the Speedmaster that claims the title of first watch on the moon, Patek Philippe usually has a lock on high prices for ... Read more