For a seemingly cursed charity auction, total sales yesterday of CHF 28.3 million will be considered a triumph by Only Watch creator and dogged campaigner for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research Luc Pettavino.
Undaunted by a partial boycott of last autumn’s attempt to host the biannual Only Watch auction of six-, seven- and even eight-figure unique pieces, due to questions over how $100 million raised by the charity since its inception, he pressed on, persuading 47 out of an original 63 watchmakers to put their piece unique forward for sale including, crucially, Patek Philippe, along with red hot indies including Rexhep Rexhepi’s F.P. Journe, Richard Mille, Petermann Bedat, Kari Voutilainen, and Grönefeld.
Patek Philippe’s ref. 6301A sonnerie and minute repeater in steel with a hand-guilloché dial sold for more than the other 46 watches in the auction, combined, when it hammered for CHF 15.7 million to, Zach Lu, one of the world’s most high profile collectors (he was previously best-known for going public with his purchase of a Tiffany & Co. Patek 5711 for $6.5 million back in 2021.
Rather than dwelling on the full auction’s results, which have been widely reported over the weekend, (see Hodinkee’s coverage here), the spotlight has turned instead to problems faced by Christie’s, which ran the auction, with its website.
Online bidding was suspended on Thursday, just hours before the auction, with bidders from around the world instructed to participate by phone if they wanted to compete with those in the room in Geneva.
Christie’s has provided slim details on the outage, and has not confirmed whether it was a technical failure, hack, or some other form of cyber attack.
It issued a holding statement on Friday, May 10, saying: “We are taking all necessary steps to manage this matter, with the engagement of a team of additional technology experts. We regret any inconvenience to our clients.”
Two days later, on Sunday, May 12, Christie’s postponed this week’s high profile auction of watches owned by Formula 1 racing legend Michael Schumacher because the online issue remained unresolved.
“I would like to inform you that, to ensure the best possible experience for all of our clients, the Rare Watches including the Property of Michael Schumacher sale will be moved to Tuesday 14 May, at 2pm CEST,” a spokesperson for Christie’s announced.
“We remain committed to providing the highest level of service to our clients and look forward to continuing a successful Geneva sales week which started with strong results for Only Watch on Friday,” the statement added.
Christie’s leadership is facing a barrage of questions, with concerns that personal information of some of the world’s wealthiest collectors could be compromised.
What caused the crash? Was it a hack attack? Is any personal information is at risk or has any been stolen? Are police investigating?
All questions put to Christie’s by WatchPro this morning. A spokesperson said they would respond ASAP.