While some believe Asia’s voracious appetite for buying luxury watches at retail might be receding, there seems little sign that the regional auction market for pre-owned pieces is in anything but rude health.
Last year, Sotheby’s Hong Kong watch department recorded its best performance, shifting a record $58.8m of timepieces in four sales. On April 8, the house hopes to set the ball rolling on an equally impressive run of auctions, when it stages its first event of 2014 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The blockbuster catalogue contains 480 lots with a combined value of more than $12.8m, among them a broad selection of complicated pieces including tourbillons and minute repeaters carrying six-figure estimates.