Four + One The Stylish And Subtle Watches Of Clara Kessi, Phillips' Next Big Thing

Kessi has long been fascinated with the art of auctioneering, how to direct the flow of a sale while standing in front of a packed room. Not everyone is cut out to be an auctioneer, but it's something Kessi's found intriguing for most of her life.

"I was a weird kid; I wanted to be an auctioneer since I was 12 years old," she said. "I saw Something's Gotta Give, with Jack Nicholson, and there was a wine auctioneer in that movie. I thought it was a pretty cool job. A little later, I read an interview in a Swiss newspaper with a female auctioneer where she described her job and it ticked all the boxes for me. I didn't know I would be a watch auctioneer, but I love it – it's awesome."

The opportunity to jump on the rostrum came during summer 2020, after Phillips pivoted from hosting an in-person Geneva sale in May to an online-only sale in June. Bacs was concerned about a replacement in case he became sick or had to quarantine – so he opened up the floor to any Phillips employee interested in learning how to be an auctioneer. Naturally, Kessi said yes.

After a few months of practice, Kessi made her debut at The Geneva Watch Auction XII, in November 2020. (Her first lot was a Vacheron Constantin 222, if you're curious.) At every Swiss-based live auction since, Kessi has taken the lead for about 20 lots or so, alongside a pair of other young Phillips specialists (Tiffany To, Marcello de Marco) who also took up Bacs' offer for training.

Phillips New York Watch Auction: SIX is currently underway, and Kessi will hit the rostrum later today, so I figured it was the perfect time to catch up with her and see what watches make up her collection.

"I don't consider myself a collector," she says. "I have watches that I like and enjoy wearing. I have some because I love them, and others because they contain memories, they're a reference to the past."

You can also find her featured in the "Ones To Watch" section in HODINKEE Magazine, Volume 10.

Kessi received her first watch as a gift before leaving her home in Switzerland to attend the University of Glasgow, where she eventually earned an MA in Art History with a specialty in Asian contemporary art. This was long before she knew she'd end up working in the watch world.

"I was very lucky, my parents gave me a 31mm stainless steel Datejust, with Roman numerals and a silver dial, for my 18th birthday," she says. "I still wear it quite often. It's engraved avec amour mamma & papa  – with love, mom and dad – on the caseback. It's a watch I'll never part with; one day when I have children of my own, I want to give it to them when they're 18."

We first spotted Kessi wearing her Journe during last December's Phillips New York Watch Auction: Five, but she's owned it for a few years now.

"I first saw it at SIHH 2018, and I thought, 'What a cool watch,'" she says. "It's Francois-Paul Journe's take on horology for women, but when I look at it, I don't think of it as a women's watch. It's very sporty and super lightweight. It goes with who I am, my personality. I can wear it anywhere."

The Élégante features Journe's proprietary quartz movement, which has a unique attribute that continues to fascinate Kessi.

"I like that it has a tortue case, which reminds me of Louis Cartier's designs in the early 1900s," she says. "But what I love is the mechanism. At night, when I take it off, after 35 minutes, the hands stop. When I wake up in the morning, the hands automatically turn back to the correct time. It's the highlight of my day. It's amazing."

"This is the first watch I bought while working at Phillips," Kessi says. "I really wanted a Daytona, but the steel one is inaccessible, the waiting lists are so long. Just because I work at Phillips doesn't mean I get easy access to watches. So I put my name on the waitlist for a steel-and-gold example at my dealer in the mountains."

A few months passed by and Kessi continued to check in with her retailer by phone. One day, in 2020, she received a call saying her watch had arrived. She ended up purchasing the watch with her fiancé, and they split time wearing it – she prefers it on the two-tone bracelet, while her fiancé likes to wear it on a leather strap.

"I always wear the Daytona now when I'm on the rostrum," she says. "The weight really grounds me and gives me confidence."

Kessi isn't the only Phillips team member who has fallen for the vintage charm of Furlan Marri's mecaquartz-powered chronographs in the past year – I spotted a number of specialists wearing the brand's watches when I was in Geneva last month.

"It's such a beautiful watch," Kessi says. "It's a modern take on one of the most collectible vintage Patek Philippe chronographs, the ref. 1463. It has a larger diameter, 38mm, which is amazing on the wrist. I love the larger pushers, the crown, it even has the stepped case and downturned lugs! The polygonal caseback is a reference to the original waterproof Taubert case design. I can't afford a 1463, but I love being able to own this without having to worry about wearing a $100,000 watch."

"As an auctioneer, I see myself as the conductor of an orchestra, but instead of a baton, I have a gavel in my hand," Kessi says, about auctioneering. "However, I'm not telling people what to do. The musicians are the bidders in the room; they make the opera happen. I'm just trying to keep the tempo."

So it's a good thing she has a miniature gavel at home to practice – and this one is particularly special for her. It was a gift from her soon-to-be father-in-law last summer, who happens to be a mergers and acquisitions lawyer who worked on the 2001 sale of Phillips to Bonhams from LVMH.

"Each of the protagonists of the sale on the Bonhams side received one of these gavels, although they weren't produced for that occasion," she says. "It was actually made to  commemorate the 200th anniversary of Phillips, and it says '1796 - 1996' on the side. It's very special to me. When I have a gavel in my hand, I feel like a certain authority, of fairness and balance. It represents the community, the passion I have, and the adrenaline I feel at the rostrum. And it also represents family for me. I was very touched when I received it."