The Legitimacy Machine

When a brand stages its own validation, it is no longer being validated. The auction room's secret is that it cannot survive transparency.

On December 3, 2025, the Corriere della Sera published a short piece about a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva. The occasion was A Celebration of Breguet’s 250th Anniversary — seventy-three lots, hammer prices that climbed to 1.88 million Swiss francs for a gold tourbillon pocket watch made by Abraham-Louis Breguet himself in 1804. Gregory Kissling, speaking …