Sotheby's auction
house has named a new head of watches for its Asia branch and
a new deputy director for the European watch department.

Charles Tearle succeeds former Asia head of watches, Vanessa Herrera, while
Herrara has been appointed business manager for watches and other categories.

Meanwhile Thomas Perazzi has joined Sotheby’s European watch department as deputy director, from an auction house specialising in horology.
Both Tearle and Perazzi will be reporting to Tim Bourne, worldwide head of watches.

Based in Hong
Kong, Tearle will work closely with Bourne, as well as an international team of
specialists in driving watch sales and auctions in Asia. 

Despite the
ongoing instability the economic crises created for the industry, growth in
global demand for
personal luxury goods has been “phenomenal” in the past two years, according to
Bain and Co consultancy firm. This insight was witnessed firsthand at Hong
Kong’s largest auction, hosted by Sotheby’s, which achieved HK$3.2 billion ($411 million) worth of
sales last Autumn.

In Bain and Co’s
latest luxury market report, sales of luxury items went up 22 per cent in Asia and 30 per cent in Mainland China. According to Bain, watches and jewellery,
defined as ‘hard luxury’, have replaced cosmetics and perfume as the sale
leaders among luxury products in the Chinese market and account for more than
20 per cent of expenditure within the high-end market.