Christie's unmounted flawless 62.3 carat diamond sold for CHF8.01 million (click on image to view larger)

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Forget the girl’s best friend, diamonds that investors love are dazzling the jewelry world this week. Christie’s big November precious gems and jewelry sale in Geneva Wednesday 18 November ended on a high note, with the sale of a 62.3 carat diamond going for CHF8.01 million at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues.

Overall, the sale brought in CHF32.28m, another strong sign that the market has recovered, after Sotheby’s sold CHF37 million in jewels Monday. The buyer was Aleks Paul of Essex Global Trading in New York, a dealer who also walked off with two other lots of diamonds worth more than CHF5m.

And down the street at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel the Antiquorum sale of fine watches set a record price for watches sold in 2009: CHF5.12m for the Patek Philippe Yellow Gold Calibre 89, one of only four in the world, each unique.

It was also a record price for this watch. The sale, over two days, brought in a total of more than CHF12 million. Patek Philippe watches continued as the best-selling brand at the auction house.

Geneva’s auction houses have sold some CHF80 million in precious gems, jewelry and watches in the past five days, a turnaround in the market that struggled a year ago to sell top jewels. Christie’s head of the sale, Jean Marc Lunel, says “With $70 million of jewellery changing hands in two days at the Geneva auctions . . .This shows the clear resurgence of the jewelry market and we look forward to exciting sales in Hong Kong, New York and London in early December.”

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