I wish I could say that watch auctions are a nice safe place to bid.
My advice: do tons of homework in advance, see the piece in person, and set your limit.
Thoughts:
– Beware being the only bidder on a lot.
– Watches being handled during the previews can take a beating. Never hurts to see it on the last preview day, and also take video/images of the condition at the time.
– Know that you might be bidding against:
— The chandelier in the room (these are legal bid…the auctioneer can go up to the reserve amount making show of things, but none are real bids). Note at times you can bid *under* the reserve and win the watch.
— The owner of the watch. Yes…they might be there bidding against you to drive the price up.
— Dealers that own the same reference and want to protect their current inventory of pieces
— The manufacture, to either prop up the value of their pieces…while some may be bidding to purchase the piece (for their museum or otherwise)
— If you are bidding at an unscrupulous auction house, they may be driving up the price without bidders, either for a written bid you submit beforehand, or during the auction above the reserve (though not legal). Examples shared on The Waiting List featured one of the hosts talking about sitting in her car with a former Phillips’ employee as he was on the phone talking about what fake bids to put in the upcoming auction (Waiting List podcast, Episode #55 37:30 [1]), and likewise around the hosts skepticism over the phone lines not working for certain lots. The Waiting List a good listen as you rarely (never?) hear people talk publicly about auction houses in this manner. But the takeaway here is that some people would recommend *never* submitting an absentee bids, and may start at your bid, or shill bid up to your maximum.
— Those just looking to launder money. Yup.
– Pay attention to the catalog notes/symbols for the lot. For example, does the auction house have a direct financial interest in the lot, either in whole or part? Is there a 3rd party guarantee on the lot (and consider whether that shows a lack of confidence in the lot)? Is there no reserve?
[1] “In Hong Kong recently…I can say this since he’s not there anymore, he worked at Phillips, but he doesn’t work there anymore…he had to take a call for the auction that was happening that night and they were basically discussing which fake bids he had to put in.
And then suddenly it was silent and I think the guy on the other end was like ‘whose car are you in?’ and then the guy casually was like ‘I’m in Lung’s car…like, Lung Lung’s car’, but you know no matter what I’m still a potential customer, you can’t say that shit in front of me, right? Um, so he got off the phone and he’s like, ‘this does not leave the car.’
And I was like, yeah, okay, I don’t think I can bid from auction again. I don’t think I can buy from auction again, it’s so bad. But it was literally like, ‘what bid are you going to put it in, at what price, how many times are you going to do it?’…you already your client really well so you know what price he is going to put, so you just got to push him a little bit…”