Breaking News: Sotheby’s Sale of the Audemars Piguet ‘Grosse Pièce’ Shatters Records, Becomes By Far Most Expensive Audemars Piguet At $7,736,000

After a few lots, giving collectors a bit of a breather, the action returned to the room with a half dozen phone bidders and a few room bidders quickly driving the price of the “Grosse Pièce” past $2, then $3 million. Former Hodinkee Editor Rich Fordon, now a specialist at Sotheby’s, quickly flexed some muscle, hanging in past $5 million for a client on the phone. In fact, Fordon placed a $5 million bid for his client, beating out another bid by a millisecond. Davide Parmegiani bid $5.1 million with a laugh “so we don’t have a problem” between the other bidders. When the action stuck with two phone bidders and Parmegiani, who was also happy to double the interval on occasion, skipping $100,000 bids in exchange for $200,000. These intervals didn’t scare off Fordon’s client, and all three bidders stuck it out until the bitter end.