Phillips Geneva, for those who still believe in the room

Every November, Geneva becomes the stock exchange of the watch world. This weekend it set a new high.

On 7 and 8 November, at the Hotel President, Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo held The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV. The final total was CHF 92,045,568, or US$112,277,184, or €100,780,693. According to Phillips, it is the first live watch auction in history to pass US$100 million.

217 lots. 100 percent sold. 2,121 bidders from 69 countries. Seventeen lots above one million francs. These are not the numbers of a cooling market.

The clock that stole the weekend

The story I will remember is not a wristwatch. It is a clock.

Lot 220 was the Cartier Portico Mystery Clock No. 4, made in 1924. It is one of only six Portico clocks produced between 1923 and 1925, and the only one with a hexagonal dial. It stands 38.5 cm tall and weighs 10.6 kg. The movement was made by the European Watch & Clock Co., the workshop behind Cartier's mystery clocks.

The hands seem to float in rock crystal, with no visible connection to the mechanism. That was the magic trick of the Cartier mystery clocks, and a hundred years later it still works.

It came from the family of Alain Cartier and, reputedly, from the collection of the Maharajah of Nawanagar. It had not been at auction since 1996. Estimated at CHF 1.8 to 3.6 million, it was hammered at CHF 3.9 million and sold for CHF 4,815,000, about US$5.87 million. That is a world record for any Cartier timepiece. For context, the Portico No. 3 sold at Phillips in May 2025 for CHF 3,932,000.

Independents, again

The top lot was not Cartier. It was the F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance "Régence", which sold for CHF 8,680,500, roughly US$10.6 million, on a hammer of CHF 7.1 million.

Another Journe made me smile. The Vagabondage III in platinum was estimated at CHF 350,000 to 700,000. It sold for CHF 5,057,000. More than seven times the high estimate, for a watch that is barely twenty years old.

The classics held their ground too. A 1945 Patek Philippe reference 1436 split seconds chronograph in stainless steel made CHF 6,267,000. A Philippe Dufour Simplicity reached CHF 1,968,500, and a Rolex Daytona 6241 "John Player Special" CHF 1,905,000.

And the rest of Geneva

Phillips was not alone. Antiquorum held its Important Modern and Vintage Timepieces sale on the same days, and reported a total of CHF 9.41 million. Christie's also held its Geneva luxury week, and I will come back to the other houses when all the numbers are final. I prefer to wait than to guess.

Curious facts

• Aurel Bacs, whose firm Bacs & Russo partners with Phillips on these sales, has been at the rostrum for many of the world's watch records. This weekend added a few more to his list.
• The Maharajah of Nawanagar is the same patron behind some of the most famous Cartier jewels of the 1920s and 1930s. His taste is still setting prices a century later.
• A sale with 100 percent sold is called a "white glove" sale. Doing it with 217 lots is very rare.

The Portugal angle

You will not find these exact pieces in a Lisbon window. But the brands behind the records are all within a short walk on the Avenida da Liberdade.

Cartier is at number 240. Patek Philippe has its Lisbon boutique by David Rosas at number 12D, and David Rosas also represents the brand in Porto, on Avenida da Boavista. F.P. Journe has no Portuguese point of sale, so for that one Geneva remains the address.

My take

I have been buying watches for more than ten years. I have seen markets go up and down, and I have learned not to read too much into a single weekend.

But this weekend says something clear. When the object is right, with real history and real rarity, the money is still there, and it travels from 69 countries to raise a paddle. What the market does not want anymore is the ordinary. Hype without history is over.

For those who still believe in the room, Geneva has just given them a very good reason.