Antiquorum Just Closed Its First New York Sale in a Decade — Here’s What Mattered

Antiquorum is back in New York. After more than ten years away, the house staged its first live sale in the city on Sunday — 157 lots of Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces at The Ned NoMad — and the room made one thing clear: the market for independent watchmaking is on fire.

F.P. Journe owned the room

The sale closed with a run of nine F.P. Journes, and the top four didn’t just meet their estimates — three of them demolished them:

• Lot 156 — Tourbillon Vertical, platinum Black Series, 2022 — $1,550,000 (est. $800k–$1.4M)
• Lot 155 — Centigraphe Souverain, platinum with salmon dial, 2011 — $1,670,000 (est. $600k–$1M)
• Lot 152 — Vagabondage II, pink gold, limited to 68 pieces, 2012 — $1,310,000 (est. $500k–$800k)
• Lot 157 — Octa Calendrier, early platinum, 2003 — $800,000 (est. $400k–$800k)

The Centigraphe went 67% over its high estimate. The Vagabondage II — one of 68 ever made — went 64% over. When platinum Journes with the right dials show up, there is no ceiling right now.

The rest of the highlights

• Lot 23 — Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1R in rose gold, Tiffany-stamped dial with Tiffany box, 2017 — $325,000 (est. $200k–$400k). The Tiffany signature keeps commanding its premium, even on a discontinued reference.
• Lots 77 & 78 — two Cartier Crash new special orders — $525,000 and $650,000. The white gold unique piece with the grey fumé dial nearly touched the top of its estimate.
• Lot 137 — Rolex Daytona 6241 “Paul Newman” with tropical dial, 1968 — $387,500 (est. $286k–$570k). Solid mid-estimate result for the right dial.
• Lot 153 — Richard Mille RM 35-02 “Rafael Nadal,” 2017 — $337,500 (est. $150k–$250k). Another lot that sailed past its high estimate.

Three of the four headline Journes finished above their high estimates. That doesn’t happen in a soft market.

What this means if you buy and sell

A few read-throughs for the months ahead. First, independent watchmaking keeps trading on its own curve — Journe, in particular, is behaving like a blue-chip asset class, not a niche. If you hold platinum Journe pieces, your comps just moved up meaningfully. Second, the Tiffany-stamped 5711 result confirms the premium is structural, not hype — $325k for a 2017 rose gold Nautilus is a serious number.

One note on the numbers: prices above are hammer — Antiquorum’s New York buyer’s premium runs 25% up to $1M, so the all-in figures run higher still.

We’ll be watching how these results filter into asking prices over the next few weeks. If any of these references are on your list — Journe especially — now is the time to get positioned.

— Austin
Timepiece Exclusives

Prices via Antiquorum’s published results; photos: Antiquorum.