Geneva’s November auction week had been billed as a test of the market’s nerve. It ended with the record books rewritten. Across three days from 7 to 9 November, Phillips, Sotheby’s and Christie’s moved roughly US$203 million of watches between them — and Phillips, in association with Bacs & Russo, became the first house in history to clear US$100 million in a single live watch auction. The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV closed at CHF 92,045,568 — some US$112.3 million — with every one of its 217 lots sold, twenty-four world records, and 2,121 registered bidders from 69 countries.
The sale belonged, above all, to F.P. Journe. Thirteen watches by the independent master realised CHF 31.8 million — more than a third of the total — led by the platinum Chronomètre à Résonance “Régence” with its hand-engraved pink gold dial, which brought CHF 8,680,500. A steel Patek Philippe ref. 1436 split-seconds chronograph from 1945 made CHF 6,267,000, a world record for any split-seconds chronograph, while the Cartier Portico Mystery Clock No. 4 set a record for any Cartier timepiece at CHF 4,815,000. And the collection we previewed in September — Pucci Papaleo’s “Stopping Time” Rolex chronographs — opened its account in style: the square yellow-gold ref. 3830 “Verga” achieved CHF 1,270,000, a record for a non-Oyster Rolex chronograph.
Christie’s answered on Monday with CHF 47.8 million (US$58.7 million), the highest total in its watch department’s history and more than double its November 2025 equivalent. A pink gold F.P. Journe Vagabondage trilogy went to a single collector for CHF 6.71 million; five Ruthenium Journes once owned by Michael Schumacher sold separately, two at CHF 1,536,000 apiece. There was a Gulf note, too: a 1978 gold Nautilus ref. 3700/1 made for Sultan Qaboos of Oman brought CHF 1,024,000.
Sotheby’s contributed more than US$32 million, topped by a yellow gold Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon ref. 5002 at CHF 2.3 million; the earliest-numbered ref. 3970 made CHF 2,048,000, and the George Daniels Millennium raced to CHF 1,536,000 — five times its low estimate. The week’s warmest result was its smallest: Christie’s Watches for ELA charity sale raised US$615,000 for leukodystrophy research, with Zinédine Zidane’s Pasha de Cartier fetching CHF 102,400, around five times estimate. A week we previewed in these pages as Geneva clearing its throat ended at full voice.
