Auctions More Than Highlights: Everything I Saw While Attending My First Auctions In Geneva

"In the unlikely event that bidding reaches one million francs," Bacs said to his audience, Biver had given him a bottle of wine from Biver's birth year (1949) to offer to the winner. The Carillon Tourbillon finally sold for an all-in price of CHF 1.27 million. It wasn't the biggest result of the weekend, but with two industry giants in the room – Biver and Bacs – egging on bidders at every increment, it was the most exciting moment in Geneva.

In the end, Phillips sold a total of CHF 47 million ($52.5 million), slightly ahead of Christie's CHF 40 million, while Sotheby's added another CHF 12 million. Not every segment of the market was up, but as discussed with the trio of record-breaking Rolex watches, legitimately rare and important watches continue to perform strongly, while others sputter along.

It was my first time attending auctions in Geneva, and one of the dynamics I immediately noticed was the same handful of players bidding up the top lots. Of course, we already discussed Rolex sparing no expense to purportedly buy five of its watches, but there were others too. An online bidder from the U.S. won that Biver Tourbillon and bottle of wine from 1949, the same paddle that had also been the underbidder on a number of indie watches leading up to the Biver, most notably the Audemars Piguet Grand et Petite Sonnerie by Philippe Dufour, which sold for CHF 889,000 (an important pocket watch itself as Dufour's first – compared to the Biver, doesn't this feel like a deal?).

Elsewhere, two well-known Italian dealers fought for a first series Patek Philippe 2499 at Phillips with an unrestored dial before it was scooped up by a phone bidder for CHF 2.4 million. It's not uncommon to see dealers sitting in the crowd, literally scrolling through WhatsApp while bidding to check "market prices" in their dealer chats or to make sure they've got a client. After Phillips sold a crispy white gold Patek 3448, it sold just a bracelet for a 3448, and a bidder in the room who Bacs remarked "already owns his 3448" battled with the new 3448 owner, making for a CHF 44,000 bracelet. Around here, everyone knows everyone.

While Phillips still steals many of the headlines, Christie's put together perhaps the most interesting catalog, highlighted by a run of vintage and neo-vintage Pateks. I discussed the 3974 and Knoll 2497 last week, and the latter sold for CHF 1.2 million – an impressive result and more than I'd expected, especially given its performance at auction eight years ago. A collector I know bought this 2497 along with Christie's pair of 130 chronographs (with Breguet numerals and a sector dial) that had restored dials and another one or two Pateks over the weekend. Again, rarified air at this level.

After the Pateks, Christie's died down as people filtered out for lunch before heading 20 minutes outside of Geneva to La Reserve. It's where Phillips, in very Phillips fashion, holds its auctions and sets itself apart from the other three houses, conducting its business from a large tent on the front lawn of the luxury hotel, at least twice as big as Christie's ballroom.

The trick of a live auction is to slowly build tension towards a run of big-time lots, and then release it before building it back up. At Phillips, this first act came courtesy of that record-breaking Rolex Milgauss and a pink-gold Patek 2499. After that perpetual calendar chronograph sold for CHF 3.2 million, dealers, collectors, and eavesdropping editors started to filter in and out of the tent through a cloud of cigarette smoke courtesy of The Italians and head to the dark, wooden bar in the lobby of La Reserve to sip on 30-franc "Phillips Limited Edition" cocktails. Maybe it's just because the lights are low and the room is dark, but it lends a bit of mystery to the conversations had by the faces you know from the industry, and perhaps just as much, to the collectors you don't even recognize.

Beyond the headlines, I was delighted by the performance of a few watches on the first day. A white gold Patek Philippe "Asymétrie" sold for CHF 215,900. Later, a gold one sold for CHF 101,600 at Sotheby's. Designed by Gilbert Albert, these are some of the most out-there Pateks, and it's great to see them selling for more than, say, a modernish Crash from the '90s – rarer and just as interesting. Of course, those dreamy complicated Pateks performed well, but appreciation for other, weirder stuff is growing too.

And here's why I like that: While Patek and very few others made complicated chronographs and perpetual calendars, a whole host of brands made funky-shaped watches that pretty much anyone can get into. Can't get a Patek or Cartier or a King Midas but still like the vibe? There are all kinds of more affordable watches from vintage Piaget, Omega, even this IWC, and others that could be for you.

There at Sotheby's the first two lots passed, failing to sell. Then, a technical issue put the auction on pause for almost 30 minutes. Sotheby's passed around plates of champagne flutes – just after 10 a.m. Technical issues solved and bidders properly lubricated, the action picked up after that, though by my count nearly 30 percent of Sotheby's original 119 lots went unsold, surely a higher number than the bean counters would prefer. A lot of those passed watches were lacking true collector-grade quality – a vintage Heuer with missing or falling out lume, a polished GMT-Master, a Patek Nautilus 3711, and so on. Perhaps because Sotheby's also spreads its wares across sales in other countries, it had the weakest catalog of the bunch, though there were some hidden gems in its online sale the next day.

An American dealer bought a beautiful Patek minute repeating American calendar pocket watch that I almost dropped when I first picked it up at preview the day prior, the heft that surprising to my unknowing fingers. Once you start to really handle these old pocket watches, you too – and not just my colleague Mark – will start telling anyone who listens about the watchmaking and relative value they still represent. The Sotheby's room was smaller than Phillips and Christie's, making it easy to spot well-known characters: Dr. Helmut Crott, John Nagayama, Tariq Malik (Momentum Dubai) John Reardon (Collectability), along with younger guys like Adam Golden (Menta Watches), Sacha Davidoff (Davidoff Brothers), and Andrea Parmegiani (typically on the phone with, presumably, his father Davide when putting his paddle up to bid).

After Sotheby's, I made a quick stop at Antiquorum's offices for a preview, which felt more like that flea market than the perfectly staged previews at the other houses. I handled and photographed all the top lots completely unattended, scaring only myself as I tried to figure out how the hell to keep the Patek "Chameleon" upright for photographs. It ended up as the top lot of the sale, selling for CHF 387,500 (again: we want the crazy stuff!). A truly new-old-stock 6263 followed at CHF 312,500 – again, condition is everything. At the preview, I sat next to a large table of The Italians, who seemed to judge mostly by feel, picking up a watch, running a few fingers over it, then gesturing emphatically at each other about whether or not the watch had "a soul." As I waited for that table to finish viewing a few watches on my list, the viewing assistant remarked not to worry because "they're fast," seeming to understand the same as me: these guys make up their minds quickly, based on some sort of gut feeling built up over the years, for better or worse. I'm still building up that intestinal fortitude.

After Antiquorum, day two at Phillips, no less busy than the first day. The first crescendo came when the Biver sold, after which people filtered outside to have a smoke, espresso, or more of that Swiss wine. The final act of the Phillips sale didn't disappoint. The just-discovered unique white gold Vacheron 222 sold for CHF 571,500, the Audemars Piguet complete calendar chronograph (my favorite lot of the weekend) for CHF 736,600, and that first series 2499 completed the sale with a result of CHF 2.1 million, just topping the first series 2499 at Christie's that had a faithfully restored dial (CHF 1.7 million).

Even a Chopard L.U.C tourbillon sold for CHF 69,000, far above its modest CHF 12,000 to 18,000 estimate. I'll take credit for shouting about the early Chopard L.U.C collection for the past six months, I guess? But seriously, with an in-house, chronometer-certified tourbillon caliber from 2005 – it's about time Chopard get some respect at auction.

Outside of that, the Boucheron Careée Reflet, '90s Ebel, and all kinds of shaped watches were discussed, though the general sentiment is that true vintage watches from the early '80s and earlier are back in a big way. It's not that they ever went anywhere, it's just that a few modern watches sucked up our attention and energy.

Meanwhile, those "hype" modern continue to fall. A Tiffany & Co. Nautilus 5711 sold for CHF 2.2 million, less than the CHF 3.2 million from last November, surely disappointing dealers who have been asking for more privately. I'd expect one or two to appear every auction season and the price to continue to fall, as it should.

The American dollar is also down significantly against the Swiss franc compared to last year, which made many stateside more conservative. Really, only a few Americans were in Geneva – the crowd here is entirely different than the New York scene, mostly dominated by Europeans.

The weekend actually started on Friday with Christie's Art of F.P. Journe sale, the first live auction dedicated to a living watchmaker. All 39 lots sold, with those at the very top performing at the high end of expectations, led by the Souscription Tourbillon, and an early brass Resonance. Meanwhile, the more common Journes in the sale performed more modestly. Still, selling more than 14 million bucks worth of Journe is a ton and something that would've probably felt inconceivable just a few years ago; it's hard to know where the Journe market goes from here given the huge run-up it's seen over the past few years, but I wouldn't be surprised if this represents a plateau for a while.

But being in Geneva is a reminder that the watch community is at its best in person. On Sunday night, I had dinner with Genevan Roy Davidoff and a number of others. He's a dealer now with a shop in old town Geneva, but he's been in the business all his life – he's a trained gemologist and has also worked at a number of brands throughout his career. While eating dinner, he told me the story of the first watch he received, an Omega Speedmaster Mark II from 1970 that his father gave him as a kid in 1989. He bought it just down the street, Roy said, pointing somewhere into the darkness. The watch wasn't perfect, but it also didn't really matter; Roy's been in watches ever since. And if a guy who's been in the business for way longer than I've been alive is still learning and finding something new to love about watches every single day, then surely you and I can too. See you next season.