Many buyers of fine mechanical watches possess a dreamy and nebulous notion that these precious timekeepers are “hand-made”. Watch manufacturers understandably do little to dispel that notion. The vast majority of watches produced today are not hand-made. At the top end of the market – where price tags are five or six figures – components are hand-finished and then hand-assembled, the […]
The past year was generally a bad one for the fine watch business, with layoffs, retiring management and plunging profits. In such an environment hopes for great products aren’t high, since watch brands now focus on safe bets that are easy to sell. Nonetheless there were several standout watches unveiled over the year, ranging from the […]
Just two days ago at Phillips’ Hong Kong watch auction a pair of timepieces that are masterpieces of contemporary independent watchmaking went under the hammer with dramatically different results. The first was a Philippe Dufour Simplicity that sold for US$258,000, about five times its original retail price some 12 years ago and just a day after Christie’s accomplished the same […]
On November 10, 2015, Nu Couché by Amedeo Modigliani sold for just over US$170 million at Christie’s in New York, making the painting of a female nude the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction. That record was set despite mixed results at the season’s headline art sales in New York, which drove a […]