With the collectors’ market now truly global, there has been a clear shift by the major auction houses to host more online sales. In particular for fine wine, whisky, watches, jewellery and some works of art. The Phillips’ digital sale room enables clients to livestream auctions and place bids from literally anywhere in the world.
The global Coronavirus epidemic has gone further to expedite the shift towards online and proved a good continuity solution for making sure sales continue.
Christie’s has built an impressive list of online auctions for April and May including ‘Jewels Online’ running from 13th-20th April. The sale offers over 150 fine jewels and iconic designs by renowned jewellers including Bulgari, Cartier, David Webb, Graff, Tiffany & Co. and Van Cleef & Arpels. Its Chinese art sale, ‘Pavilion Online’, runs from 21st-28th April, offering a wide range of jades, bronzes, scholar’s objects and Ming and Qing porcelains.
Sotheby’s has moved a number of its Spring Sales online spanning design, photographs, prints and contemporary art, in a move to provide a safe auction environment for both staff and clients. It also plans to debut a new E-Catalogue experience in April, featuring enhanced visual storytelling through video, interactive media and rich content. The move to online is clear for Sotheby’s and follows achieving $80 million of sales across 129 dedicated online auctions in 2019.
The Sotheby’s Watch Division has recently announced the launch of new weekly online auctions from 1st April. The rolling sale format, with a new selection of watches being unveiled every seven days, will offer a fast and dynamic way for collectors to sell and buy watches. The auction house has noted an increased confidence from collectors in buying important watches online and believes the weekly sales are a positive response to this trend.
Josh Pullan, Global Managing Director of Sotheby’s Watches said: “We’ve seen our online business move from strength to strength since its launch in 2016 and we believe that now is the time to unveil the next iteration of this format. With weekly online auctions, we can prepare, inspect and offer watches for sale almost instantly using our digital capabilities and provide swift services to buyers and sellers.”