NFT auctions have undoubtedly become the hottest and most talked-about new auctions recently, with the industry having high expectations for NFT development. In addition to major art auctions, NFTs have recently entered the watch industry, and Sotheby’s is about to hold the first watch auction entirely in NFT form, with the auction theme officially announced recently – focusing on never-before-seen designs by legendary watchmaker Gérald Genta.
Whenever Gérald Genta’s classic designs are mentioned, two groundbreaking timepieces, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus, are definitely among the timeless classics in the watch industry. This special event at Sotheby’s will showcase Gérald Genta’s most iconic designs, never-before-seen treasures commissioned by private clients, and a series of carefully selected innovative and unique watch styles. In addition to rare timepieces, what makes this event truly special is the unveiling of several design sketches hand-drawn by Gérald Genta himself, some of which have never been publicly revealed before.
This series of auctions will be held in spring 2022 in three locations: Geneva, Hong Kong, and New York. Three separate “Gérald Genta: Icon of Time” auction sessions will showcase a variety of classic and popular series from Gérald Genta’s creative career, with approximately 30 designs up for auction at each session.
First, at the Geneva auction in February 2022, the spotlight will be on the design blueprint of Audemars Piguet’s first-ever stainless steel The Royal Oak, including the first version design that has never been publicly released; in mid-March at my auction in Hong Kong, the auction focus will be on Patek Philippe’s The Nautilus design blueprint, and three design blueprints of The Grand Sonnerie, the world’s most complex watch made up of over a thousand components and taking five years to create, will be presented.
At the New York event in April, one of Gêrald Genta’s career masterpieces, the “Disney watch,” will be showcased, featuring the most impressive and valuable original design sketches in the series.
However, the highlight of this auction series must be the finale, the “Precious Watches” auction held in Geneva in May. This special event will feature a unique Gérald Genta The Royal Oak watch, estimated to be worth $300,000 to $500,000, celebrating the 50th anniversary of this iconic timepiece. Additionally, this auction will also present four Gérald Genta oil paintings as a tribute to “The Royal Oak” and “The Nautilus”. A portion of the proceeds from this auction series will be donated to the Gérald Genta Heritage Association to support the association’s mission of encouraging and recognizing the new generation of watch designers in the industry, such as the establishment of the Young Designer Award “Gerald Genta Prize for Young Talent”.
As mentioned at the beginning, Sotheby’s will be organizing this auction in the form of NFTs, so each watercolor painting will come with NFT certification, including digital designs by Gérald Genta; some NFTs for certain lots will even include unreleased archival materials and multimedia content. In order to allow more collectors to participate in this auction, the starting prices for all NFT lots will be set at 100 Swiss Francs (Geneva auction), 1,000 Hong Kong Dollars (Hong Kong auction), and 100 US Dollars (New York auction).
With the recent auction records of The Royal Oak and The Nautilus in recent years, this auction not only further confirms the status of the two major watch series and the original designer, the legendary watchmaker Gérald Genta, but also emphasizes the practicality of NFT technology in the corporate environment. It also confirms that Sotheby’s is ready to further adopt NFT technology in various auction categories. Watch enthusiasts should not miss this.
資料及圖片來源：Courtesy of Sotheby’s
