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CC/09-04Friday 4 September 2026The Auctions & Estates Desk · The saleroom
The saleroomAuctions & Estates · CC/09-04

Christie's watch sales rise 39% as Guillemin takes global role

Geneva's May rare watch sale made $42.2 million, which the house calls its highest various-owner watch result. Hong Kong made $35.7 million in the same month, up 40% on the year.

By The Auctions Desk4 September 2026Brief 25 sec · Full read 2 min
PLATE IThe number
+39%
Christie's worldwide watch sales, first half 2026
Year on year, the house's own figure
May 2026 watch sales · $ millions
Geneva, rare watches$42.2m
Hong Kong, important watches$35.7m
Source Christie's release · 3 Sep 2026Hammer plus premium, house-reported
What changed

Christie's watch sales grew. Christie's worldwide watch sales rose 39% year on year in the first half of 2026. The house named Remi Guillemin global head of watches, based in Geneva.

What it means · The Desk’s View

If you consign a watch this autumn: the Geneva and Hong Kong rooms both set the pace in May. The specialist teams now report to one head.

If you price vintage Audemars Piguet: a vintage piece passed $2.6 million at Christie's. A Cartier wristwatch passed $2 million.

What this is not: a market total. These are one house's own figures, in its own release.

The article3 sections · 146 words
Table I · The figures inside the appointment releaseChristie's own figures, 2026
Sale or measureFigureWhat it is
Worldwide watch sales, first half+39%Year on year, house figure
Geneva rare watches, May$42.2mHighest various-owner watch sale, per Christie's
Hong Kong important watches, May$35.7mUp 40% year on year
Richard Mille RM 56-02Over $3mHighest-priced watch sold by Christie's New York
Vintage Audemars PiguetOver $2.6mHouse record
Cartier wristwatchOver $2mHouse record
Source Christie's release naming Remi Guillemin global head of watches, 3 September 2026, read through Rapaport and Artdaily. Every figure is the house's own and none is independently audited.CC/2026/054

IOne head for two regions

Guillemin moves up. Remi Guillemin becomes global head of watches at Christie's, based in Geneva. He was head of watches for the Americas and for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He reports to luxury. Guillemin reports to Kimberly Miller, Christie's global managing director of luxury. He has spent more than a decade at the house.

IIMay carried the first half

Geneva set the record. The Geneva rare watches sale in May made $42.2 million, which Christie's calls the highest various-owner watch auction result in its history.

Hong Kong grew faster. Hong Kong's important watches sale in the same month made $35.7 million, up 40% year on year. Worldwide first-half watch sales rose 39%.

IIITwo house records in one release

Records at the top. A vintage Audemars Piguet passed $2.6 million and a Cartier wristwatch passed $2 million. Christie's New York sold a Richard Mille RM 56-02 for more than $3 million.

The frame matters. These figures reach the trade inside an appointment announcement rather than a results statement. Christie's is privately held and publishes no audited auction accounts.

The depthMethod, sources, corrections · open what you need
01What would change this call+

A second half in which Christie's watch total falls back and May's Geneva result reads as one exceptional sale. That would make 39% a single-season figure rather than a direction, and the consignment reading above would be withdrawn.

02How these figures are made+

Auction totals here are hammer price plus buyer's premium as the house reports them, for sales it conducted itself. Various-owner means a sale drawn from many consignors rather than from one collection, which is why a various-owner record is a different claim from a single-collection record. Christie's is privately held and its auction figures are not independently audited.

03Method · the desk’s arithmetic+

No arithmetic was performed on these figures; each is Christie's own, as printed in its release of 3 September 2026. Carat Capital could not reach press.christies.com and read the release through two independent hosts carrying it: Rapaport News, dated 3 September, and Artdaily, dated 4 September. The two agree on the appointment, the Geneva base and Guillemin's prior roles; the auction figures appear in the Artdaily text and not in the shorter Rapaport report, so every figure in this article rests on one of the two, not on both. Archive checks on '$42.2', '$35.7' and 'Guillemin' across every published page returned no hit. On the period test this is the harder case: Carat Capital's 16 July piece already covers Christie's first half of 2026 at group level, $4.5 billion with public auctions up 71%. Same house, same period. It carries no watch-department figure, and +39% is not $4.5 billion, so this breaks out a category the earlier piece did not reach rather than repeating it.

04Sources3 documents
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