Sales of expensive collector watches surged by nearly 20 per cent in Dubai auctions last year, says the auction house Christie's.
Vintage and limited edition watches worth US$2.5 million (Dh9.18m) were sold through its Dubai auctions, up 19.5 per cent on the $2.1m figure for 2009.
Alexandre Bigler, an associate vice president and specialist in the auctioneer's watch department, said: "Dubai is one of the emerging markets that we have where we, Christie's, have also been focusing our jewellery sales, With watches, we have realised in Dubai there are strong collectors and strong buyers, and we're trying to develop the market."
Last year's results came after a similar rise in 2009, when sales were up 19.3 per cent from $1.76m in 2008.
Sales growth in Dubai is in line with global trends, as Christie's International sold a record-breaking number of timepieces worldwide last year for a total of $91.2m.
The top watch worldwide was a Patek Philippe 1527 made in 1943 that sold for a record $5.7m at Christie's in Geneva.
"The market at the moment is showing strong signs of recovery. In Asia it is faster and the Middle East is also catching up," Mr Bigler said.
Demand for watches in the UAE is also picking up. In the first 11 months of last year the value of imported Swiss luxury watches reached 517.1m francs (Dh1.99 billion), up 30.2 per cent compared with the same period in 2009, the latest data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry shows.
This is a marked turnaround from the 35 per cent drop in sales a year earlier.
Buyers at the Christie's sales in Dubai appear to have particular tastes. In addition to bejewelled pieces, collectors tend to gravitate towards exclusive, limited-edition timepieces of which only a couple of hundred are made, Mr Bigler said.
"It seems to be really what the market is craving for," he said.
"At the beginning, we thought they would be more into jewellery watches and diamonds set, and that is still the case.
"But their tastes are more complicated and finer than we thought."
aligaya@thenational.ae
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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The smuggler
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Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
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