One Collection Outsold the Field

The quarter belonged to the wristwatch. In the space of five weeks, Phillips staged the highest-grossing watch auction ever held, the highest-grossing watch auction in U.S. history and the highest watch sale total ever recorded in Asia — one city at a time. It began in Geneva on 10 May, where The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIII totaled more than $96.3 million, by Forbes's account "the highest-grossing watch auction ever". The 225-lot sale established 43 new world records, and, according to Forbes, more than 1,815 bidders from 74 countries took part across the salesroom, online and by telephone. The top lot, a rare Patek Philippe Ref. 2523 "South America" world-time watch, realized more than $10.2 million — double its estimate, Forbes reported.⁴

Three weeks later the run moved to Hong Kong, where The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII closed on 31 May at HK$403,792,890 (US$51,523,973). The house said the headline lot — an exceptionally rare Patek Philippe Ref. 2499 First Series in pink gold — surpassed HK$80 million (US$10.2 million), making it the most valuable timepiece ever sold at auction in Asia. Phillips also reported that eight timepieces exceeded the US$1 million mark.⁶

New York completed the sweep on 14 June. The New York Watch Auction: XIV realized $75.8 million, more than doubling its high estimate, and Hypebeast reported it became the highest-grossing watch auction in U.S. history. Its top lot, an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance "Souscription, No. 007," sold for $13.9 million, which Hypebeast said broke the world auction record for any independent watchmaker.⁵

Taken together, the three sales anchored a much larger watches category once classification finished: $345,513,128 in sales — 10.3% of the quarter's total — across 19 auctions, from 3,316 lots offered of which 3,023 sold. Sixteen further sales beyond the three headline events, mostly single-owner and regional watch auctions at Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's, filled out the rest of the category's depth.¹

The collector-car story of the quarter was written in a single evening at the Grimaldi Forum. RM Sotheby's Monaco sale, which closed on 25 April, brought "€87,967,385 in total sales and an impressive 90 per cent sell-through rate," as The European reported — a result the house announced as the top-grossing collector car auction ever held in Europe. In dollar terms the sale came to $103,026,814 across 77 lots offered, of which 70 sold.¹¹

According to The European, the top lot was a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider by Scaglietti, and Ferrari lots occupied the upper reaches of a sale that surpassed RM Sotheby's Paris auction earlier in the year. The house told The European that several individual records contributed to what it called the biggest multi-lot collector-car auction it had hosted in Europe.¹⁰¹¹

What makes Monaco remarkable is its efficiency. Seventy-seven lots, 70 of them sold, delivered $103,026,814 — 3.1% of the quarter's total sales value — out of a single evening's catalogue rather than a season's worth of consignments. At the top of the collector-car market, a handful of the right cars on the right night still produces headline numbers.¹

The quarter's sales were denominated in six currencies, with the U.S. dollar accounting for 63.1% of total volume. Hong Kong dollar sales followed at 10.7%, euros at 10.1%, sterling at 8.3%, Swiss francs at 7.6% and Australian dollars at 0.2%. This distribution describes the currencies represented in the quarter; each sale was converted using the close-date FX policy.¹

At the level of the broader fine-art market, the first half of 2026 was among the strongest in years. Christie's reported auction sales up 71% year-over-year in the first half, and chief executive Bonnie Brennan characterized the period as the company's strongest first half in five years, citing growth across every department, region and price point. ArtTactic's independent review corroborates the scale of the move: combined auction sales at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips rose 70% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, to $6.8bn.⁸⁹

ArtTactic also frames that recovery as broader than a handful of marquee lots. The firm points to renewed strength in mid-range day sales running alongside the evening auctions; confidence, in its words, has returned to the market's middle core. The distinction matters for reading collectibles alongside fine art this quarter: a recovery confined to the upper-price tier would say little about the depth of buyer participation, while one that reaches day-sale material signals broader-based demand. That is the more relevant condition for most categories covered here, which trade well below the headline sales that dominate coverage.⁹

Those first-half reports provide context for this review, but they are not a like-for-like comparison with the seven houses represented here. The quarter spans six currencies, and its own trajectory cannot yet be measured against a compositionally comparable prior period.¹