Chopard and Patek Modern Watches Were Top Sellers at Sotheby’s

18K white gold and diamond Chopard tourbillon watch

An 18K white gold and diamond Chopard limited edition tourbillon watch and a Patek Philippe platinum automatic minute repeating perpetual calendar tonneau both sold for $461,000 at Sotheby’s final watch and clock auction of the spring season in New York. 

Patek Philippe platinum automatic minute repeating perpetual calendar tonneau.

The Chopard piece, released circa 2007, has a dial covered with baguette-cut diamonds and a power reserve at 12 o'clock. The Patek Philippe circa 1997 watch has a retrograde date and moon-phases compilations. Sotheby’s Important Watches & Clocks auction held Monday opened and closed with these two modern complicated wristwatches.

The auction took in more than $7.1 million, besting its pre-sale high estimate of $6.5 million and selling 89.1% by lot.

Other pieces of significance that sold included a circa 1915 Cartier desk timepiece that fetched $100,000 and a prototype sports model made by Rolex in 1967 that achieved $383,000—nearly five times its high estimate. A limited edition tourbillon by A. Lange & Söhne from 2011 brought in $197,000.

Pieces made for the Chinese, Indian and South American export markets owned by inventor and businessman Robert Howard brought in approximately $1.4 million, while all ten lots from the estate of golf course designer Jaime Ortiz-Patiño sold and were led by a Patek Philippe Ref 5004R that sold for $185,000.

“We are thrilled to finish it with an auction that performed so well across the full diversity of makers and time periods represented,” said Katharine Thomas, head of Sotheby's Watches department in New York.

Please join me on the Jewelry News Network Facebook Page, on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet and on the Forbes Website.