Sotheby's sale of fine timepieces took place this morning in Hong Kong with many of the 330 lots doing better than expected thanks to an excited bidding audience.
Amongst the most exciting lots was a rose gold, black dial A Lange and Söhne tourbillon wristwatch from 1996.
 Pink Gold A Lange & Sohne bracelet watch |
Sotheby's had used this beautiful timepiece in the marketing for the auction, though it was not quite the most valuable overall, as it lacks complications beyond a power reserve indicator. It duly sold towards the upper end of its HK$1m-1.5m guide price at HK$1.34 (US$173,000).
The top lots, however, were two Patek Philippes which we mentioned in the run up to the sale:
A platinum and diamond-set watch with a split-seconds complication was expected to sell for HK$1.6m-2m (US$200,000-258,000). This did display some complications, specifically a split-second chronograph and a perpetual calendar, inclusive of leap year indication and moon phases.
In fact bidders pushed it a little way past its top estimate with the final sale price reaching HK$2.18m (US$280,000).
Performing even better against its estimate was a rare white gold celestial Patek, created in 2007 like the other lot.
 White gold celestial Patek Philippe |
A planisphere of the Northern Hemisphere rotates counter-clockwise above its dial, whilst white-lacquered feuille hands (that is, thin and leaf-shaped) show the hours and minutes with moon phases also apparent.
This piece had been given a guide price of HK$1.4m-1.8m, but a flurry of bids took it all the way up to HK$2.12m (US$257,000).
The overall sales total was HK$53,583,250, in accordance with the high expectations that the growing market for fine timepieces in China has generated.
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Images: Sotheby's
