Business News New Swiss Auctioneer Aims To Bring 'Artist's Resale Right' Concept To Independent Watchmaker Sales

That's because, unlike contemporary artists in the U.K., European Union, Australia, and a host of other nations, watchmakers don't have so-called "Artist's Resale Right," (aka Droit de suite) that guarantees that painters, sculptors and other visual artists will be paid a percentage of the price of their works when sold by professional galleries or auction houses. It means that watchmakers who toil in obscurity and sell their early pieces for low prices only to see their values soar on the secondary market and at auction in later years after they've gained wider recognition are cut out of the profit gains for works they created and produced. While legislation in much of the world (the U.S. and Switzerland are notable exceptions) has aimed to rectify this situation for traditional artists, watchmakers have been excluded from the compensation scheme.

Now, a new Swiss-based auctioneer is aiming to cut in independent watchmakers. Marteau & Co, which is officially launching today, states that it will pay independent watchmakers a guaranteed fee of 3% of the hammer price when one of their watches is sold at auction. The new online platform is the brainchild of founder Arthur Touchot, a former senior Phillips executive (who's also a former Hodinkee Senior Editor) and co-founder Léonard Pictet, a 15-year veteran of Richemont who previously held senior roles at brands including A. Lange & Söhne and Jaeger-LeCoultre. "We believe there's a shared desire to make the system more thoughtful — to build something that sustains the creativity we all care about," says Touchot.

The novel fee structure at Marteau (which means "hammer" in French, a tool shared by both watchmakers and auctioneers) includes a 20% buyers' fee, which is lower than the 25% to 30% typically charged by major watch auction houses. Touchot says that 3% of the hammer price paid to the watchmaker will come out of the buyer's fee. There will be no sellers' fees beyond a CHF 500 flat fee per watch to cover shipping, handling, and insurance costs. And while the 3% share paid to the independent watchmaker might not seem like a lot—it would amount to CHF 3,000 on a watch that sells for CHF 100,000—it does align with the fees paid in the EU and UK to artists for secondary market sales which are on a sliding scale and are capped at about € 12,500.

Touchot and Pictet say, with Marteau, they don't expect to compete directly with the major auction houses, where F.P. Journe, Roger Smith, and Philippe Dufour pieces regularly come up for sale, fetching significant multiples above their original selling prices. "Our goal is to connect collectors with the watchmakers, and if they decide to sell or buy, we want to give them an option to make a decision that will have a positive impact on the watchmaker,'' Touchot says. The structure raises the question of whether artisan watchmakers deserve the same protections and rights as artists working in more traditional mediums. In December 2020, UNESCO inscribed the "craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics" on its representative list of the 'intangible cultural heritage of humanity.'

Marteau & Co will hold its first online auction in the fall and is open to accepting concessions for a catalogue of independent watchmaker pieces immediately. For more information, click here.