In much of the contemporary art world, particularly outside the U.S., resale royalties for artists are a familiar legal and commercial concept. The standard, known as artist’s resale right or droit de suite, is built on the idea that if an artist’s work is resold on the secondary market, the artist should share in the profits. The watch auction market, by comparison, has no equivalent standard. Even as independent watchmakers are discussed using the language of art, with their watches treated as creative works and their names encompassing a major part of the associated cachet, when one of their creations goes on the block, they typically do not benefit financially from the sale.
But Marteau & Co, a Geneva-based auction house founded last year by Arthur Touchot and Leonard Pictet, is trying to bring art-world logic to independent watchmaking. Its central mechanism is what the company calls the Maker’s Fee, whereby 3 percent of the hammer price, taken from Marteau & Co’s 20 percent buyer’s premium, is paid to the original creator after the watch sells at auction. Sellers pay no commission.
“Artists are guaranteed certain rights when their works are sold at auction, but not watchmakers,” Touchot told Observer. “This felt unfair to me, given that auction houses often present independent watchmakers as artists.” He and Pictet have known each other for over a decade, having become friends in 2015 through their work in the watch industry. Over the years, the two collaborated on launches and client events, eventually becoming neighbors in Geneva before founding Marteau & Co together. Touchot serves as CEO, while Pictet leads the company’s commercial side.
Marteau & Co is still new, but the model has already been tested. Its inaugural sale, The First Strike, was held online in October 2025 and achieved CHF 1.52 million across 24 sold lots. Its second sale, The Echo, followed in March 2026 and realized CHF 2.75 million across 29 timepieces—an 80 percent increase over its debut auction. Those results helped establish Marteau & Co not just as a conceptual alternative to the larger houses but also as a boutique platform capable of generating serious numbers in the independent watch market.
The company’s next sale, The Heat Wave, opens today (June 10) and runs through June 17. With 33 lots and estimates ranging from CHF 500 to CHF 600,000, it is focused largely on contemporary independent watchmaking with a smattering of larger maisons. Fifteen of the lots are unique pieces or prototypes, with watches from Kari Voutilainen, Vianney Halter, De Bethune, Laurent Ferrier, Pascal Coyon and others.
Before launching Marteau & Co with Pictet, Touchot spent eight years at Phillips, one of the defining forces in the modern watch auction market. “I joined Phillips during the early phase of the watch department’s rebuild, and had a privileged position within the senior leadership team,” he said. “Being part of that group, I learned how to capture market leadership and how to achieve consistent results. I also had an amazing mentor and the very best auctioneer the world has ever seen, not just in the watches category. But I felt there was space to create something new, much smaller in size and in scope, and to do things my way, with the brands I enjoy the most.”
The difference is not only philosophical. Marteau & Co’s buyer’s premium is 20 percent plus VAT, below the posted first-tier buyer’s premium schedules of the major international houses in Geneva. Sotheby’s lists a 28 percent buyer’s premium in Switzerland up to and including CHF 1.6 million; Christie’s lists 27 percent in Geneva up to CHF 1.2 million; and Phillips lists 27 percent for Geneva watch auctions up to and including CHF 1.6 million. Marteau & Co’s 0 percent seller’s commission is also presented as part of that collector-friendly structure, though seller terms at larger houses can vary by consignment.
“We’ve adapted the whole commission structure so that everyone involved in the auction feels a bit better,” Touchot explained. “The seller’s fee is 0 percent, so they keep more of the result achieved, and the buyer’s fee is only 20 percent, so they spend less. We take 3 of the 20 percent and redistribute that to the original maker, because it feels like the right thing to do.”
Most of the watches Marteau & Co offers are consigned privately rather than by brands. Touchot says roughly 90 percent of the pieces come from collector consignments, with the remaining 10 percent coming directly from watchmakers. When a piece comes from the maker, Touchot says, that is disclosed in the catalogue.
That distinction matters because Marteau & Co is not positioning itself as a novelty-release platform, even as some watchmakers have responded to the model by offering new pieces specifically for the sales. Among them, The Heat Wave notably includes a Furlan Marri Mechaquartz Chronograph prototype, estimated at CHF 500-CHF 1,000, and a SpaceOne x Baltic Piece Unique Seconde Majeure “Graté,” estimated at CHF 3,000-CHF 6,000—two first-time offerings that came to the sale after direct conversations with the brands.
“The response has been so positive from watchmakers that they have kind of organically reached out and asked us if we would include a piece that they made specifically for the platform,” Touchot said. “We try to be intentional in the curation, but the through line is always: are these pieces that we think our clients will be excited by?”
Both lots sit far below the highest-estimated entries, but their inclusion reflects the breadth Marteau & Co is deliberately trying to capture. Touchot noted that many collectors of independent watchmaking are also collectors of microbrands, and pointed out that the auction catalogue starts at just CHF 500 with the Furlan Marri. “All independent watchmakers deserve this right to a royalty,” he said. “Never mind where they are from, or if they make watches under CHF 1,000 or above CHF 1 million.”
At the top of The Heat Wave is Voutilainen’s Regulator Decimal Repeater, estimated at CHF 300,000-600,000. Touchot visited Voutilainen recently to see the piece in person, something he and Pictet try to do when a maker’s watch is consigned. “We spent an hour talking about how he selected the ébauche [base caliber] for it, and why he was one of the few watchmakers who still worked with vintage pocket watch movements. It was really enriching for me personally.”
Other major entries include the De Bethune x Urwerk Only Watch 2019 collaboration, estimated at CHF 140,000-280,000; the Vianney Halter Antiqua “Piece Unique,” estimated at CHF 100,000-200,000; and a Laurent Ferrier Galet Secret Tourbillon Piece Unique, estimated at CHF 60,000-120,000. The sale also includes pieces from F.P. Journe, Urban Jürgensen, Ludovic Ballouard, Romain Gauthier, Grönefeld, Konstantin Chaykin, H. Moser & Cie., Berneron, Daniel Roth and Lang & Heyne.
Marteau & Co’s sales are digital for now, though all the watches come to Geneva, and private previews can be arranged for prospective buyers. Brands are often contacted when one of their watches is consigned, and, when possible, Marteau & Co involves the original watchmaker in the cataloguing process.
The intentionally small catalogue is itself a statement. One collector described Marteau & Co as the slow food of the auction industry—a phrase Touchot has adopted as his own shorthand for what the house is trying to do. “These are extremely important watches, many of which took years to make, and drowning them in large catalogues feels a little irresponsible,” he said. “I think 30 is a good number. It’s enough for the sale to feel like an event, but it’s manageable for us, and gives us the ability to really focus on every watch.”
For Marteau & Co, The Heat Wave is both their signature summer auction and an opportunity to showcase their distinction. The house has already demonstrated that its model can produce strong results. The larger question is whether a platform built around maker rights and deliberate curation can shift how collectors and the watch auction market think about what is owed to creators.
Touchot believes the appetite for a house like his is there. The strongest sign so far, he said, has not been any single result, but the fact that collectors have begun coming to Marteau & Co because watchmakers recommended them. That, he says, “means a whole lot more to me than a big number with lots of zeros.”
