Jakob Weissbrot
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FIASCO AT CHRISTIE?S AUCTION OF WATCHES FROM GOLDPFEIL-ENGANA
From a european watch-magazine.
FIASCO AT CHRISTIE?S AUCTION IN GENEVA OF WATCHES FROM GOLDPFEIL-ENGANA, PRODUCED BY SEVEN MEMBERS OF THE ?AHCI"
The project started in 2000 by GOLDPFEIL-ENGANA with great premature praise, with the seven members of the AHCI, Thomas Baumgartner, Vicente Calabrese, Vianna Halter, Frank Jutzi, Bernhard Lederer and Antonio Preciuso, under the chairmanship of SVEND ANDERSEN, experienced a fiasco never seen before at the auction of the seven unique specimens on the 20th November 2002.
Although unique specimens are very popular among collectors, only the Tourbillon by Jutzi was sold. The other six ?masterpieces? found no buyers in spite of two years of promotion and were returned to GOLDPFEIL.
Also the sale of the normal watches, which according to GOLDPFEIL-ENGANA's own information were thought for the sale at the best jewellers of the world, turns out to be difficult.
Up to now, no prestigious company could be found in Europe that sells watches from GOLDPFEIL.
For GOLDPFEIL-ENGANA the damage is small: with a great number of watch companies in Asia, milliard sales are obtained in the lower range.
For the AHCI and its members, the damage is huge and at the moment the extent of the damage is not yet known. From the beginning, the project was disputed in the AHCI. The three leading watchmakers, Philippe Dufour, Paul Gerber and Andreas Strehler, unanimously rejected this co-operation and now were confirmed in all points.
From an objective point of view, this is a confirmation, which was not so unexpected. This project started without any plan, had no real chance on the luxury watch market.
Today, the customer is no longer willing to pay the price of a Patek Philippe for a no-name-product, specially if the product neither corresponds to the time taste nor to the technical possibilities.
Jakob Weissbrot
