Sun-drop yellow diamond discovered in 2010 goes for CHF11.28m at its first-ever sale in Geneva
James Bond and his amazing Rolex watch adapted in 1973 for "Live and Let Die" (source: Christie's Images Ltd, ©2011)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Going, going, gone! For CHF11.28 million, the world’s “largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond”, a rarity for colour at its size and a newcomer on the market, went to an individual who wishes to remain anonymous, says Sotheby’s. The diamond was the hottest item in the auction house’s semi-annual Geneva fine jewels sale Tuesday night 15 November.
It kept great company this week, with jewels (not, of course, just baubles) that could tell tales and watches to match every fantasy. Wednesday night Christie’s holds its fine jewels sales, expected to fetch CHF49 million in total.
A watch sale by the auction house Monday night sold more than CHF26m in timepieces, including a 1968 Patek Philippe pink platinum watch that went for CHF2m, twice its estimated sale price.
Roger Moore's James Bond Rolex (click on image to view larger): Oyster Perpetual, 660ft=200m, Submariner, manufactured in 1972 and then converted. Movement removed to allow customization, black dial, luminous baton and dot numerals, luminous mercedes-style hands, tonneau-shaped case with calibrated rotating black bezel with saw-tooth edge, modified screw back, the inside case back signed Roger Moore 007, screw down crown, stainless steel Rolex Oyster expandable bracelet with deployant clasp stamped 7-72, a small hole in the end links used to attach an invisible wire to unzip Miss Caruso's dress, case and dial signed (source: Christie's Images Ltd, ©2011)
Journalists oohed and aahed over the Taylor collection, struggling to capture the sparkling jewels with cameras
Geneva’s “palaces”, or five-star hotels, hosted visits by James Bond’s electrifying watch (not literally, one of the few things it doesn’t do), which was also sold Monday night. fpr CHF219,000, as well as a collection of astonishing jewels from the star-studded world of Hollywood’s last “real star”, Liz Taylor. The Taylor collection then moved on to Paris and soon heads for New York where Christie’s will hold a four-day special auction in December, linked to a number of Elizabeth Taylor events.
The Wednesday night Christie’s sale features one of the largest selections of BVlgari jewels ever seen at auction, it says, as well as 40 jewels that Welsh actor Richard Burton gave to Susan Hunt Burton, his third of four wives, from 1976-82; Burton, was famously earlier married twice to Taylor.
Burton, who moved to Celigny in 1957 is buried in the village, not far from Geneva.
For Russian friends in Geneva, a parure as rich in historical and emotional value as beauty, was the highlight of the week’s shows, but it failed to find a buyer Tuesday night at Sotheby’s despite strong interest.
The jewels in the diamond necklace with earrings and brooch, whose asking price was not published, are reputed to have been part of the ransom offered by Catherine I of Russia, wife of Peter the Great, to Ahmed III, the 23rd Ottoman Sultan after the Pruth River battles in 1711. The battles were a key point in the war upon Russia by the Sultan, undertaken with the encouragement of Sweden’s ruler Charles XII. Russian forces were surrounded and in desperate straits when Catherine, who had accompanied her husband to the Pruth River for the final battle, gathered her jewels in secret and sent them with a last plea for peace from her husband to the sultan. A treaty was thus negotiated and, popular history has it, Catherine saved her husband and the empire.
The jewels went on to have a rich history, ending up in Egypt and eventually, in 1963, on the market. Christie’s notes that they are probably the most “important suite of antique coloured diamond jewels to appear at auction in the past 50 years”.
La Peregrina by Cartier, with 16th century drop-shaped pearl pendant, detachable from necklace designed by Taylor herself; a gift from Richard Burton, 1972
Fine jewels have value because of their intrinsic beauty and/or their rarity, but also often because of their history, as in the case of Empress Catherine’s peace offering. But glamour counts for much and Geneva has seen plenty of it, or at least the acoutrements of it, in the past week.
The Taylor jewels in particular, were accompanied by non-stop film footage of the star wearing her glamorous pieces, who went from National Velvet to Cleopatra, but who also lived her private life very much as a star. She was one of the early entertainment world celebrities to set up house in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, where she was a familiar sight, wearing her extraordinary and often over-sized jewels on a daily basis.
“She was the last of the great Hollywood stars”, said Christie’s Jonathan Rendell, deputy chairman of its Americas division, when presenting the collection to the press. She understood, he said, that “when she stepped outside her door she was no longer Elizabeth Taylor the private person, but the Hollywood star.”
Christie’s will not say how much of the money from the sale will go to support Taylor’s humanitarian work, but Rendell did make clear that she selected the pieces before her death and asked that Christie’s handle the sale. She died 23 March 2011, age 79.
GenevaLunch will be adding a photo album of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels, from the Geneva exhibition, Wednesday afternoon.
Time flies when trade is growing rapidly; Indian Trade Minister Arnand Sharna at Baselworld 2011
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Trade between India and Switzerland, currently negotiating a bilateral free trade treaty, has grown at a “fulgerant” rate in the past 20 years, the Swiss Customs Office says. Exports from Switzerland to India grew by 18 percent in the first nine months of 2011 and have now crossed the threshold of CHF3 billion.
Swiss exports grew seven-fold from 1990 to 2010, from CHF378 million to nearly CHF2.6 billion. Imports from India grew during the same period from CHF251m to CHF901m. Trade with India has thus grown dramatically, but India remains Switzerland’s seventh trading partner, well behind China, with Swiss exports of CHF7.1b and Japan, with CHF6.43.
Chemicals account for main exports as well as imports: mainly pharmaceuticals for Swiss exports, with basic chemical products and finished ones sharing the imports from India about equally. Other Swiss exports: machines, particularly precision instruments, and electronics plus watches.
Top Sotheby's watch 15 May was a nearly 50-yer-old Patek Philippe
CHF1.15 million for the most expensive Rolex ever sold at auction, by Christies (source: Christies Ltd)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This is a week where spending your spare millions will be very easy in Geneva, the week when auctions are offering rare watches, an extraordinary emerald tiara and a bottle of Château Lafite-Rothschild, vintage 1887, Pauillac, 1er cru classé that would make grandfather sit up in his grave and ask for a glass.
Christies and Sotheby’s are outdoing themselves during the usual mid-May Geneva sales week. Sotheby’s, not too long before the British royal wedding when minds were on crowns and other state jewels, sent around a photo of the rare tiara that will be offered for sale Tuesday evening 17 May.
Most expensive auction Rolex goes for CHF1.04 million
But the week of rarefied goods began with Sotheby’s and Christies’s Important Watches sales
When the gavel went down Sunday evening 15 May on the final item at Sotheby’s, the firm could claim CHF7.75 million in sales, with a Patek Philippe watch alone going for CHF722,500. The 1960 watch, sold in 1962, belonged to a “distinguished gentleman” and is described as: “an extremely rare 18K yellow gold perpetual calendar, chronograph wristwatch with registers moon-phases and tachometer scale.”
The second most costly watch was just over CHF300,000, a 2007 Greubel Forsay watch.
They were overshadowed by the sale nearby at the Christies auction of a Rolex watch that set a new world record price for any Rolex wristwatch ever sold at auction, a “legendary, ultra-rare, split-seconds chronograph reference 4113″, sold for CHF1.035 million ($1.16m).
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A group of what police are calling highly professional thieves stole four diamonds from a stand at the Basel watch and jewelry fair Wednesday 30 March.
The gang of possibly five got away despite the alert being raised quickly and the hall being sealed off within minutes to prevent them from leaving.
The diamonds belonged to an Israeli dealer who was distracted by three would-be clients while two others broke into the display case, which they appear to have checked out in advance, according to a statement by the Basel public attorney.
Fingerprints have been lifted by investigators and video surveillance footage is being examined.
The value of the jewels is in the millions, but was not specified. Baselworld has attracted thieves in the past: one was caught in 2009 attempting to steal CHF13 million in jewels and he is now serving a three-year prison term.
TSR reports that one exhibitor had a a case of his goods stolen from a trolley at Zurich airport last week.
Baselworld closes today, 31 March.
Links to other sites: AFP, TSR (Fr)
Swiss cut back on imported chocolate but eat a little more Swiss chocolate: 12 kg per person
Swiss chocolate makers are smiling despite the high franc
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Key companies in three Swiss industries whose business is linked to the country’s reputation, have noted, noted Tuesday 8 February that while the strong franc has not helped them, they are upbeat about the outlook for 2011, after good figures for 2010.
Swatch, the country’s largest watchmaker, the chocolate industry, and Givaudin, the Geneva-based fragrance company, saw good sales growth in 2010.
Swatch Tuesday 8 February confirmed its 2010 figures and published its forecast for 2011, saying it expects to achieve sales of CHF10 billion, up from CHF6.44b in 2010.
“The current outlook for 2011 appears positive, despite the unfavorable currency constellation at present, particularly the US Dollar and the Euro against the Swiss Franc”, the company notes in a press release.
Chocosuisse, the chocolate industry’s group of 18 major producers, said sales were up 2.4 percent in 2010 to CHF1.74b, after falling in 2009. Swiss chocolate accounts for 66.8 percent of the country’s chocolate, and for the first time in nine years the share of imported chocolate slipped slightly. The Swiss are eating more chocolate, however, adding to the manufacturers’ good news. The 300 grams extra a year consumed by the Swiss brings annual consumption up to 12 kg per person a year.
Givaudin’s chief executive told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that the company’s sales were up 7.1 percent in 2010 in Swiss francs, to CHF4.2 billion. The company sees little impact from the strong franc on its operating profits because it buys and sells in the same markets, he notes.
Geneva’s new Superwatch award goes to first-ever time display with no hands, numbers, disks
Swatch says 2010 was record sales year
The new Ladymatic from Omega, shown here, Gent from Swatch, and the Type XXII 10 Hz chronograph from Breguet, introduced in 2010, pulled up Swatch sales
Geneva and Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swatch Group, based in Biel/Bienne reported 2010 financial results Wednesday morning 19 January, showing record sales of CHF6.44 billion, up 21.8 percent compared to 2009, and 12.7 percent over its previous record year in 2008, using constant exchange rates.
The watch segment of the company saw sales climb by more than 28 percent compared to 2009.
Strong franc dampened sales slightly
The strong franc in relation to the dollar and the euro hurt sales: CHF164 million or –3 percent compared to 2009 and CHF285m, or –4.7 percent compared to 2008.
The company says the outlook remains optimistic for the entire year of 2011.
The Asian luxury market and new markets offered by its Breguet and Omega brands in particular led the strong showing.
The watch group’s shares gained 34 percent in 2010, according to Business Week/Bloomberg, and shares in the maker of Jaeger-LeCoultre watches, Cie. Richemont Financiere, have risen 45 percent during the same period, two good indications of the watch industry’s strength despite the strong franc. “Swatch Group bearer shares rose as much as 8 francs, or 2 percent, to 401 francs and were up 1.3 percent as of 9:17 a.m. in Zurich” reports Bloomberg Wednesday morning.
Small, independent, highly innovative: Geneva Time Exhibition, year 2
The financial results of Switzerland’s top-selling watchmaker comes as Geneva enjoys watches from the other end of the Swiss watch spectrum.
Sixty exhibitors, mostly small independent companies, are taking part in the second annual Geneva Time Exhibition 16-21 January at the city’s International Conference Centre.
Some 60 watchmakers will display their latest collections at the second Geneva Time Exhibition.
Location: Geneva
Link out: http://www.geneva-time-exhibition.ch
Start date: 16 Jan 2011
End date: 21 Jan 2011
Swiss watch industry leads steady rise in exports
Positive October trade balance of CHF2.1 billion
Nick Hayek, chairman, Swatch Group
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nick Hayek, president of the executive group management board of the Swatch Group, showed off the new line of Ladymatic watches by Omega, one of the group’s brands, and was upbeat about the company’s performance when he met with a group of foreign journalists at Omega’s offices in Biel/Bienne.
“How many people are there in Vietnam?” he asked a Vietnam News Agency journalist. More than 80 million, Hayek quickly answered himself. “Our plan is to sell a watch every one of those 80 million” because of the market’s good potential.
Omega's new Ladymatic line breaks the mould: watches are chunky and heavy and "beautiful" says Hayek
Swatch shares closed 2.6 percent higher Thursday 18 October.
They were part of a strong upswing that saw Swiss prices at their highest in 11 weeks when the federal customs office reported that Swiss exports rose 7.8 percent (corrected for one working day less than in 2009) in October, over the same period a year earlier.
The watch industry led the way, up 18 percent compared to October 2009 and up 20 percent from January to October 2010.
The editor enjoys a too-short trial of a new Ladymatic watch by Omega
Asia and Latin America saw the strongest growth in Swiss exports in October. “We’re certainly going to expand more in China. The Chinese are enormously aware of value, of the substance of a brand,” he notes. “The Chinese understand and are sensitive to history.” Omega, he recalls, supplied the first clocks for the Chinese railways.
Hayek says that the company is doing well since the death in June 2010 of his father, Swatch founder Nicolas Hayek. “We all wish he could have continued working with us for 100 years,” but he prepared the company to continue well once he was gone, says son Nick, because he emphasized teamwork.
Hayek is pleased with the rebound in watch sales, but says he would like to see more competition within the industry, notably for movements, where Swatch’s ETA supplies the industry almost singlehandedly. ETA’s domination has been a subject of heated debate and an announcement by the group in 2008 that it would sell movements only to its own group’s brands caused an outcry. The Swiss Competition Office began to investigate the case in September 2009.
“An industry needs competition to have innovation,” Hayek insists, saying the group’s dominance should change.
Click on images to view larger
Opening ceremony at BaselWorld (image, BaselWorld 2010)
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world’s largest watch and jewelry fair opened Thursday 18 March in Basel. BaselWorld began on an upbeat note, with export figures released by the Swiss federal government the previous day showing watch exports in February alone rising 9 percent. The fair is fully booked, according to its managing director, Sylvie Ritter, with 1,915 exhibiting companies and nearly 100,000 international buyers.
And while BaselWorld to many equals watches, the jewelry business is in fact nearly as large, with watches taking up 62 percent of the exhibit space, jewelry 24 percent and related products the rest. The fair has 759 jewelry exhibitors and 592 watch exhibitors, from 45 countries.
BaselWorld runs to 25 March.
- Opening times: 09:00-18:00 (Thursday 25 March to 16:00).
- Tickets: CHF60 for the day
Omega at the Torino Olympics 2006
Omega has a long history with the Olympic Games
Update (link added) Biel-Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Gross sales in 2009 were down 6.3 percent for the Swatch Group, which 9 February published audited figures in advance of its March annual meeting, but it gained significant market share. The group notes that the overall sales figure for the Swiss Watch Federation were down 21.3 percent. The watch segment of the group’s business had “a very convincing operating margin” which contributed to the 17.6 percent increase in operating margin for the year.
The group puts 2009 into perspective against a backdrop of an outstanding 2008, the 2009 global economic crisis and unfavourable exchange rates. But 2010, it says, is off to a good start, with January sales the highest on record for that month, and orders strong. Swatch’s Omega brand as the Vancouver Olympics timekeeper is expected to give group sales a boost.
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.
Calibre 89, auctioned an Antiquorum, Geneva
Cartier watch made in honour of Red Cross, Sotheby's sale
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A watch made for an Ethiopian emperor and a 1948 pink gold watch with a perpetual calendar and moon phases are among the top pieces on the watches auction list at Sotheby’s Sunday 15 November.
The world’s most complicated timepiece, a Patek Philippe Calibre 89 watch with 33 complications, is up for auction Saturday 14 November at Antiquorum.
The two Geneva auction houses hold their big annual watch sales, which dominate the market, every November.
Several historical watches are top of the billing at Sotheby’s:
Title: Exhibitions: Swatches, watches and masks
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Three exhibitions at the Cité du Temps:
- Touch your time by Tissot
- The mask dance by Y. Shimizu
- And the Swatch collection permanent exhibition.
Start Date: 22 Apr 2009
End Date: 22 May 2009
Photo ®PHOTOPRESS Gaetan Bally
Bienne/Biel, Jura, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swatch Group had a 17.4% slide in profits in 2008, to CHF838 million, but the fall in operating profits was only 2.7%, to CHF1.2b francs on gross sales of nearly CHF5.97b. The company notes that the operating profits, which slipped only “marginally”, were achieved despite a record negative currency impact of CHF233m.
Biel/Bienne, Jura, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swatch Group sales finished the year up 4.3% in constant terms and 0.4% in Swiss francs, to CHF5.97 million, the company announced 29 January. The year ended with double-digit sales increases in China and some Middle East countries despite the economic downturn.
Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in Vaud Monday said they are still looking for the owners of several hundred watches and jewels, discovered in April 2008 when a 39-year-old Georgian man was arrested for theft. Contact: +41 21 315 4000, from 08:00-11:30 and 13:00-16:30.
Title: Ten Swiss watchmaking schools
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: At the Swiss watchmaking museum.
Start Date: 01 Dec 2008
End Date: 11 Jan 2009
Groundbreaking ceremony, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, 2008
Shanghai, China and Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Jura-based Swatch Group and Chinese hotel group Jin Jiang Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony for restoration work on a waterfront Bund building that is designed to serve as an international art centre.
Lesotho I diamond set in a ring by Harry Winston, Sotheby's November 2008 auction in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This is one of the big weeks in the year for Geneva’s international art market, with auctions taking place at lakefront hotels in Geneva for top-end watches, jewelry and antiques. The world will be watching closely to see if the art market here reflects the economic downturn. Wednesday , a Francis Bacon self-portrait that was expected to sell for $40 million was pulled from a Christie’s auction in New York when it reached only $27.4m, to gasps from the crowd.
Title: Important watches auction
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Auction of Swiss watches at Sotheby’s. Bidding prices begin at CHF1,000
Date: 16 Nov 2008
Title: Hublot’s Jean-Claude Biver, lunch talk
Location: Geneva
Description: Head of luxury watch success story Hublot, addressing the American Int. Club of Geneva
Start Time: 11:45
Date: 2008-10-10
End Time: 14:00
