Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/468853
L ike most gavel-wielders, Aurel Bacs has an auction-day ritual. Although it isn't the red ties with which he's become synonymous. His ties, he explains, are a practicality. "The last thing you can be bothered about is trying to find a tie to match your suit and shirt—and a red tie goes with everything." His ritual is far quirkier. "The worst thing that can happen to an auctioneer is to lose your voice—or have it get rusty or tired. You have to grease the engine. So I always meet a dear friend of mine before an auction for a glass of milk." He pauses. "And yes, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that." No doubt Phillips will have ample milk cartons on hand when Bacs hosts his first sale for the firm on May 9th in Geneva. The two- day auction is the debut of the house's newly formed watch department, a niche division helmed by Bacs and his wife, fellow watch expert Livia Russo. This expansion was a significant announcement by the firm's new CEO, Edward Dolman, best known for his longtime stint as chairman of Christie's. Both Bacs and Russo were Dolman's former colleagues at the rival auction house, where they earned widespread plaudits for growing annual watch sales from $8 million to $130 million in less than a decade. The duo resigned from Christie's in late 2013, and they planned only to return to the auction world as buyers. "Faithful friends and clients would ask us to assist them looking at watches, but it was a weird feeling to have a paddle in my hand instead of a gavel," Bacs laughs. Nonetheless, he went on to achieve a record-breaking buy last November, spending $24 million on behalf of an anonymous client for Patek Philippe's iconic 18-karat-gold Henry Graves Supercomplication. Bacs and Russo planned to continue consulting like this until Dolman contacted them about a potential partnership. Likening the auction business to running a restaurant, Bacs says he had grown tired of running Christie's worldwide operation; it had morphed into a role more akin to juggling franchises than a cozy family bistro, he explains. Dolman offered him the chance to begin afresh with a new mission and launch team of just five people based between New York and Geneva. As a proprietor, Bacs says, "I'd rather have a restaurant offering the best pizza in town than 80 BAL HARBOUR Watches may just be the next Blue Chip collectible—at least that's what Phillips is banking on with the debut of its new watch department. BY MARK ELLWOOD A MATTER OF TIME