Wrist Watch Record at Sotheby's

Business Insider reports that Sotheby's set a house record last night for the of a Patek Philippe 18k yellow gold wrist watch for $2.99 million.  The sale from the collection of Reginald Fullerton sold all 61 watches at 100% of value.  The sale totaled $8.34 million.

The sale shows again that luxury items remain a strong seller in the auction market despite weakness in the overall economy.

The Business Insider reports

Buyers went crazy last night at Sotheby's watch auction of the collection from Reginald H. Fullerton Jr. and his grandfather Henry Graves Jr. The sale racked in a total of $8.4 million.

A Patek Philippe 18K yellow gold tonneau wrist watch that belonged to Fullerton and has the Graves family coat-of-arms sold for $2.99 million. The movement of the watch is from 1895 and the case from 1927.

At that hammering price, it's the most expensive watch to ever be sold at Sotheby's.

The second-highest lot didn't crack a million, selling for $722,500. The piece was another Patek Philippe 18k gold calender wrist watch that is very rare.

This spring, watches sold at Sotheby's brought in $14.8 million in sales, a decent peg above the estimated $14.1 million.

Source: The Business Insider