Dubai’s auction houses are back for the new season to satiate the region’s taste for luxury and the expensive.
Among them is Christie’s, which will hold its largest Dubai watch sale on October 22 at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai featuring 150 watches. It is expected to fetch US$2.2 million. This is the second watch sale for the auction house after it launched the event last year.
“The initial sale had around 50 lots and now we have tripled this number – a sure sign of the level of interest from collectors based locally with our established collectors bidding against a new group of buyers with each season,” says Frederic Watrelot, Christie’s watch specialist.
Among the timepieces going under the hammer is Harry Winston’s Histoire de Tourbillon No 1 model, launched in 2009. It is one of the most expensive watches, and Christie’s hopes to fetch anywhere between $200,000 and $300,000 for it.
The 48mm case is made from white gold and an ultralight alloy called Zalium. Manufactured in Geneva, there are 20 limited edition pieces of the watch.
Histoire de Tourbillons are discontinued models and are now considered collector’s items. The watch auction will be the only possibility for a Middle East buyer to acquire such a model in the near future, Mr Watrelot says. This and Histoire de Tourbillon 2 will be on public view in the Emirates Towers Hotel from October 19 onwards.
The piece from Harry Winston, an American jeweller, will be among other top-end brands such as Rolex, Cartier and Corum at the sale.
At last year’s auction, Patek Philippe’s reference 5971 sold for $341,000. To tap the local market, this year the watch company will showcase some of its watches from its 175th anniversary sale, due to be held in Geneva in November.
Besides the watches, seven pens encrusted with diamonds and other precious stones will also be up for auction. Among them is a white gold ballpoint pen from the Italian penmaker Ancora, set with diamonds, weighing 10 carats, and sapphires, weighing 20 carats, with an estimated worth of between $50,000 and $80,000.
Ancora was revived in 1998, 23 years after it folded. It now specialises in limited edition writing pieces.
q&a just what makes them tick
Frederic Watrelot, the watch specialist and head of department for Christie’s Hong Kong and Dubai, reveals the finer details of watches:
What is the inspiration behind Harry Winston’s Histoire de Tourbillon 1 model?
The idea was to associate extreme watchmaking skills with a very high end and recognised brand.
How many pieces of that model will be available in Dubai?
Only one along with a Histoire de Tourbillon 2, which was launched in 2009 and is expected to fetch between US$130,000 and $230,000 in the sale. Both models had 20 pieces made.
What are the other top-selling Harry Winston models?
Those would be Histoire de Tourbillon 3, Histoire de Tourbillon 4 and Histoire de Tourbillon 5. Prices are in the hundreds of thousand of US dollars. The Histoire de Tourbillon 1 was supposed to have retailed for over $800,000 when it came out. Among the popular lines is the Opus series developed by Harry Winston in collaboration with independent watchmakers. So far 13 models have been launched and their retail prices range from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars. The latest edition, Opus 13, was developed with Ludovic Ballouard and retails for around $250,000.
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