The Geneva Spring auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips have historically been focused on jewels, watches and wine.  This year was not exception despite the main May Live auctions being cancelled and rescheduled for June and July 2020 due to the Covid19 pandemic.

There were however important changes this year when compared to previous years:

1. There was an impressive growth in the number of online auctions offered to potential Geneva buyers:

As shown above, this year's Geneva buyers had a choice of 22 auctions versus 8 last year.  Most of the new auctions were series of pure online auctions which would repeat every week or so from beginning of May until end of July 2020.  

2. Most of the new online auctions focused on watches:

Out of 22 auctions arranged by Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in the Spring 2020, 15 (68%) were offering watches.

3. The number of watches auctioned this year was the largest ever since 2007:

Despite a much smaller number of lots per auction (with sometimes as little as 3 lots in one auction), the number of additional online auction offering watches was so large that overall the number of watches being auctioned this year was 961, the larges ever number of watches neing auctioned at the Geneva Spring auctions since 2007.

4. Total revenue from auctions of watches increased by 5% from almost 47 million CHF to more than 49 million CHF:

 The growth of the watch segment in Geneva certainly was good news for the auction houses given the otherwise consistent decreasing trend at the Geneva Spring auctions over the past few years.

For further information on the Geneva Spring auctions, consult Pi-eX MESO report about the Geneva Spring auctions.