Jewelry and Watches Lead Passion Assets According to Deloitte

Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly active in the art, watcheand luxury jewelry market, more forinvestment purposes than passion. This is what the international panorama inthe high-end auction sector, which allows us to trace the identikit of a new generation of collectors, seems to be. An identikit upheld in these pages by the results of areport by Deloitte Private, which examinesdata from the latest auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips, by a double interview with Thomas and Ida Faerber, owners of the famous Faerber Collection and priorto that, dealers in precious stones for four generations, and finally by a direct comparison between the spokespersons at the auction houses Bonhams in London and Artcurial in Paris. This dossier closes with a brief rewind of some extraordinary cases of jewelry sold at staggering prices, which give a general idea of the situation of a market that is increasingly dynamic and subject to unpredictable impulses.

According to the report on “The ArtAccording to the report on “The Artand Collectible Assets Market” draftedby Deloitte Private for 2023, the art sectoris moving from purely emotional to more financial considerations, a new asset to diversify portfolios or as an inflation hedge.

While emotional value is still the key factorfor purchasing art (60% of collectors), for the first time in 12 years, 41% of collectors said that financial value is the primary motivation, a trend that also applies to luxury collectibles that have recently been included in this analysis. «Global demand for collectibles has slowed, especially at the high end of the market. In general, a more cautious attitude has prevailed in recent months, while the wave of end-of-pandemic enthusiasm suffered an inevitable set back, which also affected average lot prices. However, collectors continue to show interest in quality assets, visual arts, luxury goods and jewelry,which allowed comparable sales levels tobe maintained in 2022 and 2023,» explained Ernesto Lanzillo, Partner and Leader of Deloitte Private Italia. The research shows that Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly active in the market with the under 40s driving demand trends as a direct consequence of digitization and the expansion strategies of leading companies. Christie's reported a35% increase in new clients, of which 34% Millennials (in line with 2022). Sotheby's and Phillips also reported about 40% new bidders, of which almost a third were from the
Millennial generation. One of the most interesting trends in 2023, confirmed also in the first six months of 2024, was the enormous boost in Passion Assets, goods, primarily Contemporary art, that may be easier to understand than art, especially for new buyers.

In fact, the luxury goods sector continues to record highs and is a gateway for potential customers, as shown by auction house results, in particular Phillips, which recorded a sell-out in online auctions for watches and a 45% growth in design auctions, while 2023 confirmed the stalemate for NFTs and cryptoart. The jewelry and watch market also grewin 2023 due to the increasing availability of online-only goods. The list of collectorsof online-only goods. The list of collectors bidding for high value lots continues to be short, but numerous small investors participated in the many low to medium value
auctions. 2023 was a year of growth for the Watches & Jewels segment with outstanding results, especially in Hong Kong and Geneva. Watches still dominated at milliondollar auctions accounting for around 60% of turnover. Among the three big players in the market (Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips), the undisputed queen of the Watches & Jewelry auctions was Phillips, which recorded +412.8% compared to its 2022 performance. However, the multiple onlinesales of low to mid-value lots did not affectthe performance of the Watches & Jewels Index (which is based on in-person or “hybrid” sales that reach more than $1m). As for jewelry, the sale at Christie's in Geneva dedicated to Austrian billionaire Heidi Hortenachieved $156 million on the first day alone with hundreds of jewelry items at auction in-cluding a Cartier ring - with a 25-carat ruby -, the Briolette of India - a 90-carat whitediamond - and many others, surpassing theresult of Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry, whichfetched over $137 million in 2011. Anotherexceptional sale at Christie's was the Blue Royal, one of the world’s rarest blue dia-monds, which fetched a record $43.8 million, making it the fourth most valuable blue diamond ever sold at auction. Sotheby'salso had a major sale with the 11.16 carat Bulgari Laguna Blu diamond with an auctionvalue of $25 million. The growth in watches continued, partly due to the difficulty of accessing newly produced pieces from the big Swiss companies, including Rolex and Patek Philippe, due to extremely long waitingtimes. The highest sale was at Christie's withan $8.5 million Patek Philippe 2523 J, one ofonly three Patek Philippe reference 2523 HUDEs in yellow gold with a cloisonné enameldial depicting a map of North America.