Christie’s Billion-Dollar Night, Eric Clapton’s Pateks, the Maldives’ New Private-Island Escape & More
The market is supposed to be nervous. Someone forgot to tell the bidders. Christie’s just cleared $1.346 billion in a single art week, Phillips is posting record watch auction totals, and Joseph Lau is uncorking the last of a cellar most collectors would trade a kidney for. Elsewhere, a $400 pocket watch is reselling at $6,000, BMW is retiring its last proper roadster, and a private island in the Maldives has finally found a hotel worthy of the address. Another week, another reminder that luxury does not really do restraint. Here is what moved.
A Private Island Finally Gets the Hotel It Deserves
MGallery Collection has arrived in the Maldives, and it has chosen well. V Villas Maldives at Mirihi sits on its own island in South Ari Atoll, a 30-minute seaplane ride from Malé. Forty-two villas fan out across the beach and lagoon, with new overwater options offering private pools and butler service. Studio Gronda handled the interiors, pulling from Maldivian textures, coral-inspired ceramics, and sun-bleached timber to avoid the usual resort-neutral aesthetic. Rates from US$600.
Book a stay here.
Christie’s Reminded Everyone That Trophy Art Still Plays by Its Own Rules
The market has been cautious, but Christie’s was not. Its 20th and 21st Century Art week in New York closed at $1.346 billion, with Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 leading at $181.2 million. Records fell for Constantin Brancusi, Mark Rothko, Joan Miró, Alice Neel, and Donald Judd, a reminder that blue-chip provenanceProvenanceThe documented history of an object's ownership, origin, and authenticity, particularly important for classic cars, watches, art, and wine. Strong provenance can dramatically raise an item's value, and collectors andGo to Provenance Glossary tends to make its own weather regardless of what the broader market is doing. For a house with 259 years on the clock, this one still counts among its biggest.
More information here.
One of the Great Cellars Takes Its Last Bow
Joseph Lau has been selling off his wine collection in stages, and Christie’s Hong Kong is staging the finale on May 22. The centerpiece is 33 lots of Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée Cros-Parantoux spanning 1991 to 2001, several bottles tracing back to Christie’s own landmark 2012 Jayer sale. The supporting cast reads like a greatest-hits of Burgundy and Bordeaux: Romanée-Conti, d’Auvenay, Lafite, Latour, Mouton, Pétrus, Le Pin, Lafleur, Cheval Blanc. For serious collectors, this is the room to be in.
Place your bids here.
Phillips Follows a Record Geneva With Hong Kong
Phillips closed its Geneva Watch Auction: XXIII at CHF 74.8 million, roughly $96.3 million, the highest total a watch sale has ever posted. Rather than rest on that, it’s heading straight to Hong Kong for The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII on May 30 and 31, bringing together Patek Philippe, Rolex, F.P. Journe, and independent watchmaking names for a collector market that is still very much chasing the rare thing at the right moment.
More information here.
The Little Pocket Watch That Started a Small Riot
Swatch and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Pop pocket watch arrived, and the crowds did too. The candy-colored bioceramic collaboration, priced between $400 and $420, drew lines so long at Swatch boutiques in New York, Paris, and London that police were called in to manage them. It is now turning up on resale platforms at $6,000.
Read more here.
BMW Closes the Roadster Chapter
The Z4 is finished. The final one rolled out of Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, as a Final Edition in Frozen Black, fitted with a 382 hp twin-turbo inline-six and, mercifully, a six-speed manual. It is a proper send-off for a car that carried BMW’s two-seat convertible identity for more than two decades, leaving the brand without a roadster for the first time in over thirty years. The 4 Series convertible picks up the open-air duties from here.
Read more here.
Eric Clapton’s Pateks Are Changing Wrists This Summer
Phillips’s New York Watch Auction: XIV runs June 13 and 14, and the headline act belongs to Eric Clapton‘s former collection. The anchor lot is possibly unique Ref. 5004G-020, a white-gold perpetual calendar split-seconds chronograph with a rose dial, estimated at $700,000 to $1.4 million. His Nautilus “Jumbo” Ref. 5711/1A-010 is also on the block. Beyond Slowhand’s wrist, the sale includes an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Souscription,” a Rolex Daytona “John Player Special,” and a Patek Ref. 1518.
Check out the lots here.