Having had a passion for horology since childhood, Casper Behrendtzen has a long history working with auction houses in Scandinavia.
Now the Danish national has joined Adam’s of St Stephen’s Green, to head the auction house’s new fine watches department.
Behrendtzen spent 20 years with Lauritz, the oldest auction house in Denmark, where “we helped transform one of the oldest auction houses to one of the first in the world to host online auctions” he says.
He has also worked as an independent consultant for Bukowskis in Sweden, which was acquired by Bonhams in 2022, and was headhunted by Bruun Rasmussen in Denmark, which was also bought by Bonhams in 2022, to establish and run their watch department.
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Behrendtzen is also a well-established presence in the art and antiques television industry, having produced and starred in numerous television programmes. He participated as an expert and co-host on the Danish version of the Antiques Roadshow (Guld i Kobstaederne/Gold in the Market Towns).
The highlight of his television career was when “an old man arrived with a Rolex that he had bought in the 1960s and thought was valued around €10,000. In fact it was a very special, rare Rolex, from a Paul Newman edition that had a special kind of dial. He ended up selling it for €220,000 (through Bruun-Rasmussen).
“I love cases like that. He had very little money at the time and told us: ‘I just sold my watch for more than my house is worth’”.
He says a Rolex Submariner is his choice of a “daily breather” (watch speak for what to wear during the week), and for occasions he wears a Patek Philippe Nautilus, while his dream watch would be “a complicated Patek Philippe with all the extras”.
He says the watch market is “particularly hot” at the moment, especially as English customers are now selling their watches in Ireland due to Brexit.
“The overall feeling is that the market in England has gone since Brexit, and there is huge potential in Ireland as a result.”
He says that Ireland is interesting, “as it is not only the top brands that are in demand – like Scandinavia and Europe – but also the middle brands, so there is scope for greater growth”.
He likens selling watches post-Brexit to the situation in Norway: “As it is outside the EU, nobody buys there because the VAT it makes it too expensive”.
As head of watches, he will hold two sales per year in Dublin, in addition to valuations (he is in the process of organising a national tour for watch valuations), and will advise clients on investment pieces.
He has experience here too, having worked with the US firm Investment Watches. The firm’s latest research shows that average prices for top models from leading brands Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet on the secondary market, rose at an annual rate of 20 per cent from 2018-2023.
By comparison, the S&P 500 equities index rose by just eight per cent. adams.ie
