How to Win a $190,000 Rolex at Auction and Pay No Buyer’s Premium
By saying goodbye to premiums, a new format from Bob’s Watches is destined to ruffle feathers at traditional auction houses.
The 12 watches that make up the first auction.
Photographer: Justin Morton, Bob’s Watches
While the vintage watch auction scene has been on fire in recent years, it remains closely guarded by a small selection of major players. Phillips and Christie’s continue to set sales records, including the first Rolex Submariner to achieve north of $1 million and the success of Phillips’s “Winning Icons – Legendary Watches of the 20th Century,” which sold $28.8 million worth of timepieces in a single evening last October. In spring alone, the watch auctions of Phillips netted a remarkable $61 million—a 17 percent increase from a year earlier.
Alongside this powerhouse duo, Sotheby’s, Antiquorum, and Heritage Auctions (among others) pick up the balance of watch auction sales around the globe.