Sotheby's auction house has named a new head of watches for its Asia branch and a new deputy director for the European watch department.

Charles Tearle succeeds former Asia head of watches, Vanessa Herrera, while Herrara has been appointed business manager for watches and other categories.

Meanwhile Thomas Perazzi has joined Sotheby’s European watch department as deputy director, from an auction house specialising in horology. Both Tearle and Perazzi will be reporting to Tim Bourne, worldwide head of watches.

Based in Hong Kong, Tearle will work closely with Bourne, as well as an international team of specialists in driving watch sales and auctions in Asia. 

Despite the ongoing instability the economic crises created for the industry, growth in global demand for personal luxury goods has been “phenomenal” in the past two years, according to Bain and Co consultancy firm. This insight was witnessed firsthand at Hong Kong’s largest auction, hosted by Sotheby’s, which achieved HK$3.2 billion ($411 million) worth of sales last Autumn.

In Bain and Co’s latest luxury market report, sales of luxury items went up 22 per cent in Asia and 30 per cent in Mainland China. According to Bain, watches and jewellery, defined as ‘hard luxury’, have replaced cosmetics and perfume as the sale leaders among luxury products in the Chinese market and account for more than 20 per cent of expenditure within the high-end market.