★ Geneva Watch and Jewelry Auction Weeks

01Perché è rilevante

These few days determine what a great watch is worth. Because the four houses compete openly and consign the same categories, Geneva produces the deepest comparable results anywhere, and a strong or weak week is read as a verdict on the whole collecting market. Several of the highest prices ever paid for a wristwatch have been set in this city in these weeks.

In our reading, the week is also the most accessible part of the watch calendar, and almost nobody outside the trade realizes it. The previews are open, free and full of pieces that will disappear into private collections the following evening. A visitor with no intention of bidding can see more significant watches in two days here than at any fair.

02La settimana intorno all'evento

Geneva absorbs auction week without much visible change. The lakefront hotels fill, the restaurants near the Rhône are busy in the evenings, and the specialists, dealers and collectors move on foot between previews that are rarely more than fifteen minutes apart. In May the city is at its most pleasant; in November it is grey and cold, and the November week has the added density of the GPHG.

The previews are the part worth planning around. They open before the sales and are the only time these objects are all in one city, and they are unticketed. A visitor can do three houses in an afternoon.

03Quando arrivare

Arrive two days before the first sale to see the previews without a crowd, and stay through the sale you care about. Serious bidders come earlier still, to examine pieces properly and talk to the specialists before the rooms get busy. Three nights covers a week's worth of viewing and one or two sales.

04Dove alloggiare

The Rive Droite lakefront is where the auction world stays and where several of the previews and sales are held; walking distance covers most of the week. The old town and the Rive Gauche are quieter and better for eating, and no more than fifteen minutes away on foot. The May week is the busier of the two for hotels; November is easier unless a conference coincides.

05Accesso e ospitalità

Previews are open to the public and free, published with hours by each house; catalogues are sold or given. Attending a sale in the room is generally possible for registered clients, and the houses stream and take telephone and online bids worldwide. Bidding requires registration, identification and, above a threshold, financial references, arranged in advance with each house separately. Private views, specialist appointments and client dinners are by invitation. There is no ticket and no hospitality tier.

06Dove si svolge l'attività sociale

The preview rooms themselves, which function as the week's meeting places and where the trade circulates openly; the lakefront hotel bars in the evenings; and the salerooms during the sales, which are noisy and sociable in a way art auctions no longer are. In November the GPHG exhibition and ceremony add another set of rooms in the same days.

07Come arrivare

08Aspetti pratici

09Storia

Geneva became the center of watch auctions in the 1970s and 1980s, when Antiquorum, founded in the city, established the specialist watch sale as a category and staged the thematic auctions that created the modern market for vintage wristwatches. Christie's and Sotheby's built Geneva watch and jewelry departments alongside it, and the city's neutrality, banking infrastructure and proximity to the manufacturers made it the natural place to sell.

The arrival of Phillips' watch department in 2015, with a team recruited from Christie's, sharpened the competition and pushed prices and publicity to a new level. Since then the two weeks have been the fixed poles of the auction year, and the houses have added charity sales, single-owner collections and themed catalogues to hold their positions in them.

10Chi è presente

Collectors and their advisers, dealers and brokers, museum and brand heritage departments buying back their own history, the auction houses' own specialists and consignors, and a substantial press contingent. The jewelry sales draw a partly separate constituency, including the estate and gemstone trade. Previews additionally attract enthusiasts and Geneva residents with no commercial interest at all.