Christie’s sees 42% rise in luxury watch sales in Dubai

Dubai is poised to become a target market for rare, luxury watches with sales in the emirate rising 42 percent since 2008, London-based auction house Christie’s has said.

Two auctions of rare timepieces in the emirate last year generated sales of $2,506,425, Christie’s said, a rise of 19.5 percent on the revenue generated the previous year from rare watch sales.

The revenue represents a rise of more than 42 percent since 2008, Aurel Bacs, international head of Christie’s Watches told Arabian Business.

“The growth in watch sales since 2008 in Dubai has been beyond our expectations,” he said.

“With this level of growth we expect Dubai to become an increasingly significant auction centre for our global watch sales.”

The priciest piece sold in Dubai last year was a Patek Philippe piece with moon phase display, which was sold at an October auction for $116,500.

However, this still has some way to go to beat the number one global sale of the year, which was a Patek Philippe Reference 1527 piece manufactured in 1943, which was sold for a record $5.7m at a Christie’s auction in Geneva.

Founded in 1766, Christie’s has 53 offices in 32 countries. Its next scheduled auction in Dubai will be in April.

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