Features

Old Master portraits dealer Mark Weiss tells us about his love for another kind of vintage. His collection leads our special report on the wine, whisky and spirits market.

A Chateau De Pomès Pédérère Armagnac distilled in 1950 is estimated at £200-300 at McTear’s Rare & Fine Whisky Auction on December 16.

Irish auction house Victor Mee (19% buyer’s premium) holds regular sale of pub memorabilia and collectables but the online-only October 5-6 offering was on another level.

In its Whisky & Spirits sale on December 9, Lyon & Turnbull offers a number of 1960s Macallan whiskies including this 1962 The Macallan Gordon MacPhail 100 proof.

The oldest bottle released from The Macallan Distillery – and the oldest age statement whisky ever offered at auction – has sold for a premium-inclusive £756,400 in London.

Henry Adams in West Sussex will hold The December Auctions Fine Wines & Spirits sale on December 17.

Watch parts such as replacement dials, cases and hands from well-known models can add up to a lot of interest at auction, as recent results show.

The latest online sale of Clocks, Watches, & Scientific Instruments held by Skinner (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Marlborough, Massachusetts included two of perhaps only 50 surviving Tornek-Rayville TR-900 stainless steel dive watches.

Gold pin awarded to Second World War Polish pilot later executed after the Great Escape

This timeline shows a sample of items across many price points sold in 2020 at timed online auctions by a wide range of auction houses.

The Rolex GMT-Master Ref 6542 is known to collectors as the ‘Pussy Galore’ as it was worn by Honor Blackman in Goldfinger. Made from 1954-59, it was replaced by the more commonly encountered GMT-Master Ref 1675.

This Zenith chronometer dating from c.1954 is powered by a calibre 135 movement which is widely considered to be the most elegant manual wind movement ever made.

The Skipper Carrera Ref 7753/54, nicknamed the Skiperrera, was the first of the Heuer skipper models and a trophy lot in the collecting sphere.

Dorotheum’s auction of wrist and pocket watches in Vienna on November 27 includes this Rolex Dato Compax ref 4768.

The Submariner 5508 released in 1958 was the last of the so-called ‘James Bond’ Submariners.

This Movado model 14776 triple calendar watch is best known as the Calendograf.

A watch worn many times by the king of rock and roll at the peak of his career comes for sale at Sworders this month.

This Omega Seamaster 300, c.1967, has been consigned for sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on November 17-18 by a career member of the Royal Engineers.

Formerly of McTear’s, Sarah Fergusson has become the new head of watches at Lyon & Turnbull.

Live or timed? It used to be an easy answer: nothing compares to the thrill and theatre of the live sale. Now it is not so simple.