An unprecedented auction of 162 luxury watches seized for criminal or tax offenses allowed the State to recover nearly 1.5 million euros in the capital of French watchmaking, on Wednesday in Besançon.
This auction brought together many enthusiasts: the room in the old cloister of the historic center rented by the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets (Agrasc) was packed with more than 7,000 buyers from all over the world. registered on the auction platforms to follow the event on drouot.com.
The most prestigious piece, an Aquanaut Travel Time from the prestigious Geneva watch manufacturer Patek Philippe, sold for 81,200 euros on the Internet. With a price of 20,000 euros, the offers rose to 54,000 euros in less than 10 seconds on the Internet to finally exceed 81,000 euros.
Goal widely surpassed
Hubert, a collector from the Paris region, arrived with a clear objective: “The strategy is simple, not to exceed 50% of the exposed price. Revisions of the object and the absence of warranty on the “A watch requires great care with the products that are purchased”, estimated this passionate enlightener before the start of the auction.
For Cathy, from Besançon, who attended the exhibition of the lots on Wednesday morning, “the price of these watches is a little high considering my capabilities. I still saw some models from the Longines brand. I had not noticed “There are no limits because the dream is priceless. “I’m interested in beautiful watch movements and I think watches should be worn,” adds the potential buyer.
For this sale, presented as the most important of the year for Rolex watches, the organizers had set the goal of exceeding 400,000 euros. At the end of the day, the National Directorate of State Interventions (DNID), which co-organized the event, announced that the total sum of 1,479 million euros (taxes on domain services included) would be entered into the State budget.
Source: BFM TV
