Geneva’s fall watch season runs to more than 1,225 lots across four auction houses, and the order of the sales matters. Antiquorum goes first, on November 7 and 8, with 603 lots. Christie’s closes the week on November 9 at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, which means the market will have already spoken by the time its most expensive watches come up.
Hodinkee’s preview of the two sales reads like a weather report for the whole vintage market: F.P. Journe at the top, Patek Philippe close behind, and a long tail of honest vintage watches at prices a working collector can still reach. Estimates below are in Swiss francs.
Christie’s, November 9: The Journe Test
The lead lot is an early, third-generation F.P. Journe Tourbillon with a brass movement, estimated at CHF 650,000 to CHF 1,400,000. Journe’s own boutique sits a 15-minute walk from the auction room, and the brand cannot supply the demand its watches now command, so buyers have pushed the fight into the saleroom. This sale is the season’s test of how far that goes.
Two watches with Michael Schumacher provenance return to Christie’s two years after the house last sold them: a Ruthenium Tourbillon and a Chronomètre à Résonance. They made CHF 642,000 and CHF 390,600 in 2024. Both open at estimates in the same range as the lead tourbillon, and the preview’s judgment is blunt: even without the name, the market would likely pay more today.
Patek Philippe carries the middle of the sale. A ref. 1518 that sold for CHF 400,000 in 2021 is back, opening at CHF 500,000, its caseback still engraved with the original owner’s name. A fresh-to-market Khanjar Nautilus ref. 3700, with its yellow crest matched to a yellow gold case and its full set of papers and box, is the kind of lot that rarely surfaces. Among the independents, a Voutilainen 28SC with an onyx center dial is estimated at CHF 300,000 to CHF 500,000, and a unique Sylvain Pinaud is expected to pass its CHF 200,000 top estimate.
Antiquorum, November 7 and 8: Where the Deals Live
Antiquorum offers nearly half the season’s lots, and it remains the house that still cares about affordable vintage. About 20 school watches are in the catalogue: pieces made by watchmaking students between the 1920s and 1970s that, as Hodinkee notes, often match the quality of the branded models they copied. A school watch built like a Patek Philippe ref. 2509 can be had for a fraction of the signed version.
The estimates reward patience. A platinum Patek Philippe ref. 2422 is estimated at CHF 10,000 to CHF 15,000. A pink gold Vacheron Constantin ref. 4560 triple calendar opens at CHF 8,000. The first automatic tourbillon Audemars Piguet ever made carries a low estimate of CHF 15,000, before the buyer’s premium everyone forgets until the invoice arrives.
The Strangest Lot in Geneva
Every Antiquorum catalogue hides objects no other house would take. This season’s is a Moulinié Bautte perfume sprinkler built as a flintlock pistol, made for the Chinese market: cock the hammers and the barrels fire gold lotus flowers that scatter perfume. The starting price is CHF 220,000, and perhaps a handful of people alive can service it.
The full sale details are on the Christie’s and Antiquorum sites. By Monday night, Geneva will know what a brass-movement Journe is worth this year. The rest of the market will price itself accordingly.
The Social Register’s event directory tracks the season’s galas, benefits, and society evenings. Plan your next evening there.
