It?s not often that we get to write about an auction house for the first time. There are four or five well-known watch auction houses (you know who they are) that have pretty much dominated that side of the industry for as long as most people can remember. Of course, there are other, more regional auction houses but, on an international, even national level, it?s quite rare to see a new face pop up.
However, with Fortuna, a seven-year-old auction house that has made its name on the jewelry side of the collecting world, that?s not the case. Founded by former industrial designer Seth Holehouse and his wife, and soon joined by his childhood friend, John Saxon and his wife, the young business is poised to make a name for itself thanks to a straightforward pricing strategy and a hands-on and no-risk approach to buying and selling. “The origin of the auction house was to protect and look out for the seller, because in our experience, the buyers, they’re the knowledgeable ones,” says Holehouse. “It’s the person that inherits their grandfather’s watch, or it’s the woman that is going through a bad divorce and needs to sell her jewelry. Those are the people that are at a lot of risk. So we really wanted to build a business that would hold their hand and protect them and guide them through the process, and that became the foundation for it.”
This Heuer Autavia Ref. 7763C from 1969 is one of many fantastic vintage Heuer tool watches up ...