The best UK replica watches auction circuit is a strange and fickle beast that resembles a circus more often than it doesn’t. The conductors of these horological carnivals are always elevated above the rest of the room and seemingly have the power to conjure six- and seven-figure dollar signs with a wave of their hammers.
After working the high quality fake watches auction beat for a few seasons at this point, there are clearly some macro-level similarities that remain true from sale to sale. But underneath those, there’s a nonstop current of micro-trends that can change with every single passing lot. And trust me, there are a whole lot of lots. Our team on the ground in Geneva (which was just our photographer, @waitlisted, and me) attended five different auctions hosted by four different houses (Antiquorum, Christie’s, Phillips, and Sotheby’s), which combined to contain over 1,000 lots.
There were so many surprises and interesting developments that, being honest, I had a hard time figuring out where to start in my post-sale coverage. I believe you could absolutely write an entire book based around a single auction season and detailing all the small, medium, and large proceedings that occur in a single one-day sale. I legitimately had so many different thoughts and trends I wanted to discuss that it was nearly impossible to narrow it down to just a select few. But eventually, that’s what I was able to do.
Although our old pal Eric Ku didn’t make the trip over to Geneva this year, he was top-of-mind for everyone in attendance after early cheap replica Cartier London Crash watches sold for over $1.5 million through his online auction platform, Loupe This. Suddenly, one of the hottest areas of the vintage watch market was at a fever pitch – all eyes were on shaped perfect copy Cartier wristwatches at all four auction houses.
The sales didn’t disappoint. Cloches were clocking in at crazy figures at Christie’s and Antiquorum. Awesome Grand top fake Cartier Tank Cintrée watches with provenance from Hollywood’s Golden Age approached six figures at Christie’s. Wild cloisonné enamel Swiss made Carteir Tortue super clone watches that might have struggled to find an audience a year ago nearly doubled its high estimate at Sotheby’s. And it was impossible to miss the Parallélogramme at Phillips.
All attention, however, was on lot 133 at Christie’s, 1990 replica Cartier London Crash watches for sale, to see if it could come close to replicating the jaw-dropping Loupe This figure. While it didn’t top a million bucks, it sure came close, settling in at CHF 819,000, a seriously impressive total for ’90s wholesale fake Cartier London Crash watches. It’s not only an aggressive result but also a sign of how the Crash market is expanding. There are a number of fairly significant differences between Loupe This’ 1967 Cartier London Crash and the 1990 Cartier London Crash at Christie’s, but at the end of the day they’re both interesting for similar inherent reasons. It would have been a bit of a bummer to see the 1990 AAA Cartier Crash replica watches, well, crash at Christie’s after there had already been so much immediate discourse on the model following the record-breaking sale at Loupe This.