In the Midst of a Pandemic, Jewellery and Watch Auction Sales Have Never Been Better

Major auction houses have recorded staggering results from watch and jewellery sales this year so far, and in the midst of a pandemic The aggregate of jewellery sales at Sotheby's Asia totalled more than HK$470 million year-to-date, with all its three online jewellery auctions held earlier in the year selling 100 percent of its lots "These results effectively made Sotheby's the leading jewellery auction market in Asia.

The jewellery segment has been resilient in spite of the challenge of Covid, and clearly our strategy of focusing on top-quality jewellery, coupled with quick actions in expanding our online auction program, the effort in curating themed sales and exploring new auction formats, paid off," Wenhao Yu, deputy chairman, jewellery for Sotheby's Asia, told Prestige It's also worth mentioning that the Magnificent Jewels live auction in Hong Kong held in July recorded HK$438 million in sales, making it the highest-value jewellery sale worldwide across all auction houses to date By the end of 2020, the auction house will have held six online jewellery sales in New York and Hong Kong, compared to only two in 2019, Graeme Thompson, worldwide head of jewellery at Phillips, revealed, adding that its Hong Kong July sale of Jewels and Jadeite registered a 54-percent increase over the previous year's sale.

Sotheby's Asia is seeing the same trend, noting that while there's a healthy balance of avid collectors and new buyers at their jewellery auctions, there seems to be more people looking at jewellery as a form of alternative investment Bonhams' head of jewellery Leslie Roskind agrees, saying that while one cannot pre-determine the value of provenance when it comes to appraising a collection or a jewel with a historical or celebrity history, and therefore an auction estimate is based on what the jewel is - the quality of gemstones, signature, time period, etc - provenance plays an enormous role in the results of the sale. . Source