«Only Watch» is back
Many of you will remember the autumn 2005 issue of GMT with its cover story: “Antiquorum treats itself to the Monaco Yacht Show”. Antiquroum founder and boss Osvaldo Patrizzi, and Luc Pettavino, President of the Monaco Yacht Show, had achieved the remarkable feat of uniting the leaders of 34 top-flight watch brands around a joint project: Only Watch. Each brand had created a one-of-a-kind or “only” watch intended for a major auction to be held in the temple of absolute luxury represented by the Monaco Yacht Show. The auction raised two million euros that were entirely donated to Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies. The record-breaking model on this occasion was the famous Richard Mille model designed in cooperation with Philippe Starck (€285,000). With the support of Prince Albert II of Monaco, Luc Pettavino has convinced Osvaldo Patrizzi to renew his support for this noble cause this year. The Only Watch 2007 will be held on September 20th during the Monaco Yacht Show. Last year’s winning twosome, Richard Mille and Philippe Starck, will once again be on board, along with the following 30 brands: Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Chopard, Corum, Daniel Roth, De Bethune, De Witt, Eterna, Franck Müller, Frédérique Constant, Girard-Perregaux, Glasshütte Original, Harry Winston, Hublot, IWC, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Jaquet Droz, Louis Vuitton, Mauboussin, Officine Panerai, Omega, Patek Philippe, Piaget, Pierre Kunz, Rodolphe, Swatch, Vacheron Constantin, Ulysse Nardin and Zenith. A handsome line-up indeed. As of August 1st 2007, the resulting 31 models will set out on a travelling exhibition that will tour the world prior to the auction. Osvaldo Patrizzi has set himself the goal of exceeding the € 2.5 million mark, or even nudging € 3 millions. With this in mind, he has discreetly pressured CEOs to make sure their teams demonstrate the full force of their creativity in order to guarantee that the quality and rarity of their models mean collectors will bid for them at any price. As was the case last year, they will be presented in full along with their auction results in the GMT autumn issue.

Win-win-win Omegamania
Another thematic auction, to be held this spring and devoted to only one brand, may well prove extremely significant in terms of scope and results. Antiquorum and Omega have been working for two years on this gigantic operation intended to appeal to watch collectors, and both are expecting a good deal from this particular auction*. Antiquorum brings its expertise to the table, while Omega is providing the documentation and technical back-up, with all watches covered by a twoyear guarantee. Conforming Omega’s commitment to the project at the highest level, Nicolas Hayek cancelled all his afternoon meetings in order to browse through the 600 pages of the Omegamania catalogue when he received the first copy in early February. No less than 300 lots are superbly illustrated in this publication, all reflecting the extremely rich heritage of Omega. This catalogue almost reads like a novel. Fetishists, for example, will jump at the chance to acquire a gold Speedmaster watch that spent one ydear aboard the Mir space station, the Seamaster worn by Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow never dies, or another that graced Daniel Craig’s wrist in the latest James Bond film. When there is such a high subjective or emotional value involved, it is hard to estimate how much these models will actually fetch, but the figure will doubtless be well above the theoretically highest-priced lot, the Observatory silver watch with tourbillon regulator (estimated at between CHF 100,000 and CHF 150,000). The brand has filmed a spot ad in the Antiquorum premises that is being shown on CNN – a sure sign that Omega is determined to capitalize on this collector-watch image among a high-end clientele. It is also a nice added bonus for Osvaldo Patrizzi, who also intends to broaden the potential of his prospective buyers. Karin Tasso, who is charge of the marketing department for Antiquorum, emphasized the accessible nature of this auction, with models starting at CHF 1,000 and thus capable of generating new collectors: “we are going to reach a wider audience that will also gain from the experience when people realise in three to four years’ time that the value of their investment has doubled”. For the first time in the history of watch auctions, this sale was held simultaneously in an auction room in Geneva and on the Swatch Plaza in Baselworld on April 14th and 15th, coinciding with the publication of this GMT issue.

Synergies on the net
Omega also happens to be the largest forum on Time- Zone, the leading English language watchmaking website created in Singapore in 1994 by a handful of watch enthusiasts and which was bought up at the start of this year by… Antiquorum. Karin Tasso commented: “Everything happened pretty fast around Christmas time: when the heads of TimeZone told Osvaldo that their site was for sale, he showed an immediate interest”. This platform scored three million hits in 2006, and its community comprises 45,000 members – which makes a vast number of devotees of contemporary watches to be converted to the virtues of vintage! Karin Tasso specified that Antiquorum is not going to make any drastic changes in the mission of the 30 moderators from 9 different countries, “but we will simply draw their attention to what is going on in the field of antique watches and our system of valuing models”. Because Antiquorum does not plan to stop there. From May 2007 onwards, the Antiquorum website will offer collectors a chance to estimate their watch portfolio by means of a software program linked to a data bank comprising thousands of references sold over the past few years by the major auctioneers.

My Collection will not predict the future of your watch, but will keep month-by-month track of the evaluation on the auction market. The amount of data available on watches and their references has significantly increased in recent years, enhancing the reliability of the My Collection. Data bank. Moreover, many watch brands have hopped on the bandwagon of limited editions designed to appeal to collectors, thereby reinforcing this phenomenon. “Collectors these days are constantly renewing their watches, often selling some of them in order to buy the latest limited edition or to acquire a model by a potential future star brand”, explained Osvaldo Patrizzi in relation to the new program that will award stars in an extremely detailed and specific manner. This is because the same model may be worth twice as much if it is sold with its presentation box and certificate of origin. By way of example, the Rolex Daytona 6323 features 4 references (steel, gold, with or without the “Paul Newman” dial), whereas the Patek Philippe 3970 boasts 13! Richly documented and informed by over thirty years’ experience in the profession, My Collection is a cutting-edge on-line service dedicated to monitoring the value of watch collections, for which users will pay US$1,000 the first year, and then a fifth of that amount each year. As a complementary service in the United States, a market where the high-end watch market enjoyed explosive growth last year, Antiquorum is even planning to introduce a leasing arrangement for buying watches. Unlike a fridge or a car that you buy on a leasing arrangement, and if you have a flair for the market, your watch may not necessarily lose value, but gain value instead. Guess who will be the winner at the end of the day? Osvaldo Patrizzi is certainly a past master in the art of partnerships and synergies – witness his immediate acceptance of the proposal made to him by GMT when the magazine was created in 2000.

Coming back to contemporary models, GMT is offering you in the next few pages a selection of watches that may well deserve to become part of a collection, depending on its owner’s tastes, and thereby one day find itself in the My Collection data bank.