中國人炒熱古董懷錶市場

Daryn Schnipper is chairwoman of the international watch division of Sotheby’s. She spoke with Nina Siegal.

達琳·斯尼珀(Daryn Schnipper)是蘇富比拍賣行(Sotheby’s)國際鐘錶部的主席。以下是她和尼娜·西格爾(Nina Siegal)的對話。

At Sotheby’s, you’re known for making inroads in the Asian market. What has been the impact of Asian buyers?

問：在蘇富比，你以打入亞洲市場聞名。亞洲買家們產生了哪些影響？

A. The Chinese were not buying from us even 10 years ago and now all of a sudden they make up a big portion of our sales worldwide, because there’s so much new wealth in China. That extends to the rest of Asia, too. It depends on where the sale is taking place, but in terms of bidders and buyers, Asian buyers can now make up a third to a quarter of our watch sales.

答：甚至在十年前，中國人還不是我們的買家，但是現在突然之間，他們成了我們全球拍賣會的重要組成部分，因爲中國現在有很多新富。這適用於整個亞洲。這取決於拍賣會在哪個地方舉行，但是從競拍者和購買者的角度看，亞洲買家現在佔我們鐘錶銷售的1/4至1/3。

Q. What area of sales in particular?

問：哪個領域內的銷售比較特別？

A. I’ve been surprised by the interest in pocket watches, which have trended amazingly well in all these countries where they weren’t able to purchase them years ago because there wasn’t sufficient wealth. Right now, the Chinese are buying back many of the watches that were made for their market in an earlier time period, the 18th and 19th centuries.

答：亞洲人對懷錶的興趣出乎我的意料。懷錶在這些國家的銷售趨勢非常好，多年前他們買不起這種表，因爲那時候他們沒有足夠的財富。現在，中國人正在買回很多十八至十九世紀專爲中國市場製造的懷錶。

Q. When did you notice that trend?

問：你是何時注意到這種趨勢的？

A. I would say around 2008 we started to really see a change. Until the mid-1980s, the whole market was pocket watches. Wristwatches weren’t something people generally considered a collectible, though there were some trailblazers, like Andy Warhol. But in the last 20 years, pocket watches became increasingly out-of-fashion as wristwatches became more and more in vogue. Then around 2007 or 2008, all of a sudden, you had the Chinese, who became heavily involved in the market for pocket watches.

答：2008年左右我們開始真正看到這種變化。直至20世紀80年代中期，市場上都是懷錶。人們通常認爲腕錶沒有收藏價值，雖然也有一些先驅，比如安迪·沃霍爾(Andy Warhol)。但是在過去20年裏，懷錶慢慢過時，手錶變得越來越流行。然後在2007年或2008年，突然之間，中國人積極參與懷錶市場。

Q. What are Chinese-market pocket watches?

問：什麼是中國市場懷錶？

A. If you’re looking for Chinese-market pocket watches, you’re actually looking for something that was made specifically for the Asian market, either in England during the 18th century, and then in Switzerland throughout the entire 19th century. The watches that were made for the Chinese market were called “Chinese caliber,” meaning that the mechanism of the watch consists of plates and bridges fashioned in a manner that would appeal to Chinese collectors and tastes, namely decorative with engravings such as foliate designs. For example, you’re looking at watches that had extremely beautiful enamel scenes, like a burst of summer flowers, or small enamel portraits.

答：中國市場懷錶實際上是專門爲亞洲市場製作的懷錶，最初是18世紀在英國製造的，後來是整個19世紀在瑞士製造的。爲中國市場製造的懷錶被稱爲“中國品質”(Chinese caliber)，意思是這種懷錶的錶盤和錶帶設計符合中國收藏者的品味，也就是說具有裝飾性，比如上面雕刻有葉子圖案。或者懷錶上有特別美麗的琺琅圖案，比如盛放的夏花或者小小的琺琅肖像。

Q. How have prices been affected by the buyers from Asia?

問：亞洲買家對價格產生了什麼影響？

A. The whole landscape has changed. For a while, your typical Chinese-market watch in a gilt metal case would sell for only $5,000, whereas today, it can sell for $40,000. Then you have an enameled gold watch with more features, like miniaturized figures that do something. The complicated designs might feature a whole carpenter shop, for example, with six or seven different figures, hammering, sawing or winding a mill. Those can easily sell for $200,000. If you add a singing bird to that mix, you can go from the half-million-dollar to the million-dollar category.

答：整個行情都變了。典型的鍍金金屬錶殼中國市場懷錶曾經只賣5000美元，現在它的售價是四萬美元。還有更具特色的琺琅金錶，比如有的錶殼上面有一些正在幹活的微型人物。複雜的設計可能包括整個木匠店，上面有六七個人物，有的在錘打，有的在拉鋸，有的在研磨。那種懷錶能輕鬆賣到20萬美元。如果再加上一隻唱歌的小鳥，就能賣到50萬至100萬美元。

Q. What kind or prices did they fetch when they were first made?

問：這些表最初製造時的售價是多少？

A. Hard to say, but they would have been expensive even then. For example, we had a rare open-faced watch made for the Chinese market from about 1860 by Louis Audemars, Brassus & Geneva, with specialized hunting scenes depicting an elephant, lion, horse and hunters. We sold it for $81,250.

答：這很難講，不過即使在當時，它們應該也很昂貴。例如，我們曾有一個罕見的無蓋懷錶，大約是1860年左右路易斯·奧德馬爾、布拉蘇斯與熱納瓦公司(Louis Audemars, Brassus & Geneva)爲中國市場製造的，上面有獨具特色的狩獵場面，繪有大象、獅子、馬和狩獵者。最後的售價是81250美元。

Q. Where have these watches been since the 19th century?

問：從19世紀起，這些懷錶都存放在哪裏？

A. They stayed in families, mostly. For China, during the late 19th century there were things that came out because of the opium wars and the Boxer Rebellion that were imported to the West. But because people couldn’t go there for such a long time during Maoist times there were lots of things that just never came out.

答：它們大多是被家庭收藏。19世紀末，在中國，因爲鴉片戰爭和義和團運動，有些懷錶出現在市場上，被賣到西方。但是在毛澤東時代，有很長時間裏中國人不能去西方，所以還有很多東西從未露面。

Q. Is the market increasingly competitive?

問：這個市場的競爭越來越激烈了嗎？

A. There are a great deal of Asian buyers, but it’s also given rebirth in interest in Western buyers. The competition is interesting. You have Swiss museums that are bidding for these things. In fact many of the companies that made these for export are now buying back for their own museums.

答：亞洲買家很多，但是西方買家的興趣也被激發起來了。競爭局面很有意思。有些瑞士博物館在競拍這些懷錶。實際上，很多當初生產這些懷錶以供出口的公司正在爲自己的博物館買回它們。

Q. How is the supply?

問：供貨情況如何呢？

A. You’re not going to have 100 Chinese-market pocket watches in a sale. You’re lucky to have five or six. They survive time pretty well. Some have had enamel restoration.

答：在一次拍賣會上，你不可能有100塊中國市場懷錶。有五六塊就很幸運了。它們很能經受歲月的考驗。有些懷錶的琺琅得到重新修復。

Q. Where are the buyers going now?

問：現在買家們有什麼新動向？

A. Chinese buyers who might have started to buy watches that were specifically made for their market in history have migrated to pocket watches that weren’t necessarily made for their market and that were not decorative but that have complications that do something other than tell time, like tourbillons for example, special escapements or perpetual calendars. The prices for those Patek or Audemars Piguet pocket watches have escalated exponentially as well. A typical minute repeater by Patek Philippe was in the $20,000 range in the 1980s at the peak, then went down to $6,000, and now is back up to in the upper-$20,000 to $30,000 category for the same watch.

答：開始購買歷史上專爲中國市場製造的懷錶的中國買家們轉向不一定是專爲中國市場製造的懷錶。它們沒有裝飾性，但有複雜裝置和其他功能，比如陀飛輪(tourbillon)，它有特殊的擒縱調速機制，或者萬年曆。百達翡麗(Patek)或愛彼(Audemars Piguet)懷錶的價格也快速上漲。典型的百達翡麗三問表在20世紀80年代的巔峯時期能賣到兩萬美元左右，然後價格回落至6000美元，現在同一塊表的價格又回升至兩萬至三萬美元。

Q. Are a lot of Chinese collectors actually carrying pocket watches?

問：很多中國收藏者真的佩戴懷錶嗎？

A. People don’t wear them. They’re collecting them. Wristwatches are what people wear. You must remember that these are things they didn’t have access to for a long time, and now they’re able to make collections of them.

答：他們不戴，只是收藏。他們戴手錶。要知道，有很長一段時間，他們接觸不到這些東西，而現在他們能收藏它們了。