A new report by the Mercury Project, a consulting company focusing on the watch & jewelry retail industry, and quoted by Rough & Polished, shows that the watch auction business saw “outstandingly high levels of global activity” in 2021.
According to the report, global watch auction sales from Antiquorum, Bonhams, Christie’s, Poly Auction, Sotheby’s and Phillips soared to a record CHF 634 million (around $638 million) in 2021, “double the previous year and up 63% compared to 2019, before the pandemic.”
2021 marked the most successful year ever for Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo (the name of its watch arm), “which sold a grand total of CHF 200.15 million (around $215 million), a record for any auction house, up 63%” over 2020. It was also a record year for watches at Christie’s with CHF 189.6 million (around $204 million) – a 152% increase over 2020.
Read the full report here.
