The extraordinary Dunkel Collection Swatch watches has just sold for 46.48 million Hong Kong dollars, or just over US$6 million. With over 5800 timepieces in the collection, it sold for about US$1000 per watch.

Sotheby’s in Hong Kong has just sold the Dunkel Collection of Swatch watches for HK$46.48 million, including the buyer’s premium, or more than four times the estimate of HK$10 million. The buyer was a “European institution” according to the auction house.  Comprising some 5800 watches collected over nearly 25 years by European collector Paul Dunkel, the collection is the largest Swatch collection ever sold, surpassing the lot sold by Phillips for HK$51 million in 2011 that was made up of 4363 watches. The Dunkel Collection was made up of 5630 standard Swatch watches, 45 prototypes and 19 Maxi Swatch, plus artwork related to the watches. Not just a watch collection, it was time capsule of popular culture stretching from the eighties till the mid-2000s, given how incredibly popular Swatch once was. 

With the hammer price equivalent to US$6.02 million, the collection sold for about US$1038 per watch, a reasonable price to pay for a museum or other institution that needs a collection of such scale.