Sotheby’s has reported a standout performance in 2025, with watch and jewellery sales delivering robust year-on-year growth.
Watch sales reached a record $193.6 million, up 22 per cent on 2024, making 2025 the strongest year ever for the category. One of the standout results was Audemars Piguet’s Grosse Pièce pocket watch, which realised $7.7 million, dramatically exceeding its high pre-sale estimate of $1 million.
Worldwide jewellery revenue also rose sharply, increasing 18 per cent year on year to $317.7 million. While this figure remained well below Sotheby’s all-time jewellery record of $603 million set in 2014, it was driven by a series of landmark auctions, important private collections and expanding participation from new global markets.
Among the top-selling jewellery lots of 2025 were:
- The 10.03-carat fancy vivid blue “Mediterranean Blue”, which sold for $21.1 million
- The 31.68-carat fancy vivid orangy-pink “Desert Rose”, achieving $8.8 million
- A 4.50-carat fancy vivid blue diamond, which realised $6 million
“This has been an exceptionally strong year for the jewellery market, marked by multiple ‘white glove’ sales and expansion into new markets,” said Quig Bruning, Head of Sotheby’s Jewels, Americas & EMEA. “These results reflect a growing global appetite for rare, exceptional jewels and impeccable diamonds, as well as a continued quest for quality among collectors seeking the very best the world has to offer.”
By comparison, Sotheby’s 2014 jewellery record was underpinned by a series of extraordinary stones, including the Zoe Blue diamond (now known as the Mellon Blue), which sold for $32.6 million, the Graff Vivid Yellow diamond at $16.3 million, and the Hutton-Mdivani jadeite necklace, which fetched $27.4 million.
Together, the 2025 results underline renewed momentum across both the high-end watch and jewellery markets, reinforcing Sotheby’s position at the forefront of global luxury auctions.