Marteau & Co Just Proved Its Maker's Fee Is More Than Just a Nice Idea

When Arthur Touchot and Leonard Pictet launched Marteau & Co last year, the pitch was simple enough: independent watchmakers should get a cut when their own work resells at auction. The idea borrows an existing legal concept from the art world, droit de suite, and applies it to independent watchmaking—a category that's spent the last decade being discussed in art-world terms without any art-world protections. Three percent of the hammer price, taken out of Marteau's buyer's premium rather than added on top, goes back to the watchmaker, while sellers pay nothing.

The Heat Wave, Marteau's third sale, ran online from June 10 to 17. It was a white-glove sale—all 33 lots sold—for more than double the combined high estimates across them. The young auction house pulled in CHF 5.6 million (about $7 million), more than double their previous sale, The Echo's, CHF 2.75 million (about $3.4 million) from March, and set new auction records for two names that matter enormously in this corner of the market: Kari Voutilainen and Vianney Halter.

The Headline Lots

The top result of the sale was a piece unique Voutilainen Regulator Decimal Repeater, which carried a pre-sale estimate of CHF 300,000 to 600,000 and sold for CHF 1.56 million— more than double the high estimate, and a new benchmark for the Finnish independent at auction.

Touchot visited Voutilainen ahead of the sale to see the watch in person, something he and Pictet try to do when a piece is consigned. The two spent an hour talking through how Voutilainen selected the base movement for the piece, and why he remains one of the few contemporary watchmakers still building around vintage pocket-watch movements at a time when much of the rest of the industry has moved on. It's the kind of detail collectors don't usually get from a lot description, and the kind of access Marteau & Co has built its model around, often involving makers directly in how their own pieces get presented.

A unique pink-gold Halter Antiqua sold next for CHF 960,000, setting a new record for Halter. The result builds on a trend in the broader market: early independent watchmaking—made before "independent" became a prestige category—is increasingly commanding serious prices at auction. The De Bethune x Urwerk Moon Satellite, originally produced for Only Watch 2019, also sold for CHF 480,000—a 60 percent jump over what it brought the last time it changed hands publicly.

The Sleeper Lots

If the top of the catalogue confirmed what collectors already believed about Voutilainen and Halter, the bottom of it is where this sale gets interesting.

A Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure Gratté workshop prototype, made in collaboration with the French independent Théo Auffret, sold for CHF 54,000 against a high estimate of CHF 6,000— nine times its estimate. A Furlan Marri Mechaquartz Chronograph workshop prototype, estimated at CHF 500 to 1,000, also sold for CHF 26,400, a result Marteau & Co pointed out as approximately 45 times the retail price of the production model it's based on. And a Qian GuoBiao Facing the Sky 2.0 prototype brought CHF 102,000, a new high-water mark for a Chinese independent watchmaker at auction.

None of those names are likely to headline a Phillips or Christie's evening sale anytime soon, but the results speak to the range of interest the auction house is bringing to the category. Touchot described wanting a catalogue with "something in there for everyone," from a CHF 500 microbrand piece up through a six-figure Voutilainen. The Baltic and Furlan Marri results suggest that range is part of the appeal, that collectors are willing to chase prototypes and workshop pieces well past their estimates, not just the established six-figure names. Both watches, notably, came to the platform after the brands "organically reached out and asked" to include a piece catered specifically for the sale, in Touchot's words; neither was a traditional collector consignment.

The Math in Context

Giving up 3 of the 20 percent buyer's premium to the maker is a real cost on paper, against a 27 to 28 percent buyer's premium at the Geneva operations of Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips, and a seller's commission of zero. A white-glove sale with two world records in year one is the clearest answer the house could give to that math.

Touchot, who spent eight years at Phillips before launching Marteau & Co with Pictet, has framed the whole project less as innovation than as an overdue correction. "Independent watchmakers are in extremely high demand, and results at auction are at an all-time high," he shared before the sale. "But it feels like auction houses have not reacted in a way that feels meaningful." When asked whether the Maker's Fee was a business strategy or a symbolic gesture, Touchot rejected the framing—he said the results show the model can hold its values and still post competitive numbers.

Touchot has also been candid that some of the warmest responses to the business haven't come from watchmakers at all, but from the secondhand effect of watchmakers vouching for the platform to their own clients and collector networks.

Three Sales, A Clear Trajectory

The first sale, the aptly dubbed The First Strike, totaled CHF 1.52 million. The second— the aforementioned The Echo— went for CHF 2.75 million. And the third, The Heat Wave, totaled CHF 5.6 million. Taken together, this looks like compounding, rather than a steady climb.

This doesn't mean the rest of the auction world is about to adopt anything resembling a Maker's Fee. Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips are unlikely to restructure their commission models because a Geneva startup had a strong June. But three sales and a white-glove result in, Marteau & Co has made its case that paying makers back doesn't come at the expense of competitive bidding.

Touchot doesn't think the idea arrived early. "I feel like we're late," he said. "[The model] should have been in place a long time ago." After three sales, and now a white-glove result, Marteau & Co has stronger evidence that paying makers back isn’t just principled; it can compete.

To learn more, visit Marteau & Co, here.