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Your morning briefing on the luxury and collectibles markets. Today: the watch world loses Patek Philippe's Philippe Stern; the Diane Keaton estate brings $4.2 million at Bonhams; Japanese whisky sets a $1 million record; and with gold at a new high, Rolex and Piaget lean in. Plus markets, where the Dow closed at a record on the US-Iran deal.
(Prices: Yahoo Finance v8. Europe = Jun 16 open; US = Jun 15 close.)
Good morning. It's Tuesday, June 16. I'm Sharon, and this is Open Bid from ALT/FNDATA.
We begin with a major loss for the watch world. Philippe Stern, the former president of Patek Philippe, has died. He was one of the most influential figures in modern watchmaking. Over decades at the helm, he oversaw two of the most important watches the company ever made: the Nautilus, the steel sports watch launched in 1976 that is now one of the most sought-after designs at auction, and the Calibre 89, which on its debut in 1989 was billed as the most complicated watch in the world. He is the father of Patek's current president, Thierry Stern. Under the family's stewardship, Patek became the single most coveted name in the auction room. You could see that again just last week, when a rare Patek reference known as the "Red Dot" sold for 2.76 million dollars at Christie's in New York. In the ALT/FNDATA database, the top Patek to sell over the past year went for about 1.7 million dollars, also at Christie's, and last week's result pushed the brand's ceiling higher still.
From the saleroom, a standout estate result. Bonhams sold the personal collection of the late actress Diane Keaton, and the sale totaled 4.2 million dollars. The top lot was the original script from her 1977 film "Annie Hall," which sold for nearly one hundred times its high estimate. It is a reminder of how much a strong personal story and clear provenance can add at auction.
Staying with collections, Sotheby's has announced it will auction around 1,000 personal sketches by the late Karl Lagerfeld. The drawings have not been seen publicly before, and they will be offered alongside other pieces of his archive, including his collection of iPods. Lagerfeld led Chanel and Fendi for decades, and material this close to a designer of his stature tends to draw global interest.
Now to whisky, and a new high-water mark. A bottle of rare Japanese whisky, a Yamazaki 50 Year Old, sold for about one million dollars in Hong Kong. According to ARTnews, that is a record for Japanese whisky. The bottle was created exclusively for a private Japanese club. Yamazaki has long sat at the top of this category. In the ALT/FNDATA database, a Yamazaki 55 Year Old sold for 600,000 dollars at Sotheby's, so this latest result lifts the ceiling higher still.
There is a clear theme running through the luxury market right now, and it is gold. The metal closed at a record on Monday and has kept climbing, trading around 4,360 dollars an ounce this morning. That strength is showing up across the business. Rolex has just raised the prices of its gold watches by about 5 percent, its second increase this year, according to industry sources. And Piaget has unveiled a new 65-piece high jewelry collection called Extraleganza, inspired by the gem-set dials of its ultra-thin watches. When gold runs, the houses that work in it tend to follow.
To the markets, where the big picture is still the US-Iran deal. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record, near 51,310, as the agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz eased fears over oil. Crude has since fallen to a three-month low, trading around 75 dollars a barrel, and US gasoline has slipped below 4 dollars a gallon for the first time since April. And SpaceX is still climbing. The newly listed stock is up more than 50 percent over three sessions, trading around 213 dollars. This morning, US stock futures are pointing higher again, building on Monday's record, as investors look ahead to the Federal Reserve's first interest-rate decision under its new chair, Kevin Warsh, due later this week.
That risk-on mood is showing up in the luxury stocks too, though more calmly than Monday. Start with Europe, where trading is open now. On Monday these shares shot higher at the open and then gave it all back, so this morning's open is the cleaner read, and it was quiet. Measured against Monday's close, LVMH, ticker MC in Paris, and Hermès, ticker RMS, both opened roughly flat, while Kering, the owner of Gucci, ticker KER, and Swatch in Zurich, ticker UHR, opened just slightly lower. After a volatile Monday, a calm open.
The US market has not opened yet, so here is where the American luxury names finished on Monday. Ferrari, ticker RACE, was the standout, closing up about 4 percent. The fashion houses gained too, with Tapestry, the owner of Coach, up about 2.4 percent, and Ralph Lauren up about 2.1 percent. On the other side, Capri Holdings, the parent of Versace, slipped about 1.3 percent, and the watchmaker Movado fell about 4 percent. That last one is worth sitting with. Watches set records at auction over the weekend, and yet the company that makes and sells new watches fell. The boom is in the resale market, not always in the makers.
On the calendar, Sotheby's Important Watches caps a remarkable run of watch sales this week. And the RM Sotheby's Sealed auction, featuring a 1969 Lamborghini Miura, closes tomorrow, June 17.
That's it on Open Bid for today, Tuesday, June 16. Our weekly Art Market show publishes later today, and Closing Price follows this evening at 5 PM Eastern.
For more insights on the top stories in today's Open Bid, check out the ALT/FNDATA market index and datasets, which cover the secondary-market signals behind the luxury names we follow. You can start for free in our data sandbox. To get started, reach us on our website, or by email at info@altfndata.com.
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I'm Sharon, from ALT/FNDATA. I'll talk with you in the next episode.
