wsky1

Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old

£170
39.3%vs 12 months ago

latest hammer price · blended across 2 auction houses

Scarce at auction· 11 lots a year

Auction lots

231

Houses

2

Last sold

103 days ago

Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old is a collectable Scotch whisky from Bowmore aged 16 years. Based on 231 recorded auction lots across 80 months of trading data, the current median hammer price is £170, with the most recent sale at £170. Over the trading window, prices have ranged from £60 (low) to £320 (high). Accounting for lot-to-lot variation, a realistic valuation range for Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old is £114–£226 33% around the latest sale).

Year-on-year, Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old is down 39.3%, with a 6-month trend of -19% (down). wsky1 aggregates hammer prices from major public Scotch whisky auctions including Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, and Bonhams. All prices are in GBP and exclude buyer's premium (typically 24–28% additional at major houses). Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.

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About Bowmore

Bowmore is a whisky distillery. Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old is an age-stated bottling at 16 years old, distilled in 1989.

What drives this bottle's value

  • Single vintage

    Distilled in a single year (1989), so the available batch is inherently finite.

These are scarcity and demand signals drawn from the bottle's own attributes — they describe the bottle, not a prediction of future price. Not investment advice.

Release & bottling facts

Distillery
Bowmore
Age
16 years
Vintage
1989
Bottle size
700ml

Filter by source

Latest sale

£170

24-month median

£170

24-month high

£320

24-month low

£60

Estimated value · likely range

£114–£226 ±33%

Auction hammers swing lot to lot with condition, fill level and timing. Treat this band — not a single figure — as the bottle's value.

Market presence

last 12 months

Scarce at auctiona good find when it appears

Seen at auction

11 lots

Cadence

≈ every 33 days

Trend

57% vs prior year

Houses

2

Activity rank

top 7% of tracked bottles

Last seen

103 days ago

Across the auction houses wsky1 tracks.

Seen across auction houses

Seen at: Scotch Whisky Auctions · Whisky Hammer

Cross-house median

£180

Median hammer price blended across every recorded sale at all 2 auction houses below — a single figure that smooths house-to-house variation.

Auction housePrice pointsLatest hammerMedian
Scotch Whisky Auctions155£170£170
Whisky Hammer11£190£240
19%vs 6 months ago
39.3%vs 12 months ago

Price history (monthly median)

£58£194£330Apr 13Jan 15Dec 16Sept 18Nov 20Feb 23Dec 25

Recent auction results

MonthMedianLots
May 2026£1701
December 2025£2202
November 2025£1702
September 2025£1802
July 2025£2102
April 2025£2102
December 2024£2102
August 2024£2402
April 2024£2158
December 2023£2302
October 2023£2402
August 2023£2302

Comparable bottles

Frequently asked questions

How rare is Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old at auction?

Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old appeared in 11 auction lots over the last 12 months across the auction houses wsky1 tracks — scarce at auction (a good find when it appears). That is up 57% on the previous year. It has traded at 2 different auction houses in that period. That puts it in the top 7% by auction activity among the 29,926 bottles wsky1 tracks — most collectable bottles hammer only a handful of times a year.

What is the current auction price of Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old?

The latest hammer price for Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old at auction is £170. Across the most recent 24 months of auction data, the median hammer price is £170, with a high of £320 and a low of £60. All prices are in GBP and exclude buyer's premium. Data is aggregated from major auction houses including Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, and Bonhams.

How much has Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old changed in value over the past year?

Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old is down 39.3% year-on-year based on monthly median hammer prices. Over the past 6 months it has moved down 19%. Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.

Where can I sell Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old?

Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old regularly appears at major Scotch whisky auction houses including Scotch Whisky Auctions (Scotland), Whisky Auctioneer (Scotland), Just Whisky, Whisky Hammer, and Bonhams. The current median hammer price is £170 (excluding buyer's premium). At most major houses, buyer's premium adds 24–28% on top of hammer for the buyer; sellers typically receive the hammer price minus a sales commission of 5–15%.

Is Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old a good investment?

Over the past 12 months Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old has moved down 39.3%, with a current median hammer price of £170. The bottle has been observed at auction across 231 recorded lots in our database. wsky1 provides hammer-price data for informational purposes only — not investment advice. Whisky is an illiquid alternative asset; secondary-market value depends heavily on bottle condition, fill level, label integrity, and timing.

How does wsky1 calculate the price of Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old?

wsky1 ingests public auction results from major auction houses (via direct scraping of Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, Bonhams, and Whisky Hammer, plus aggregated data from WhiskyHunter). For each bottle, we group hammer prices by year-month and compute the median price per month. The figures shown — latest £170, 24-month median £170 — are derived from this monthly-median methodology. All prices are hammer prices in GBP, excluding buyer's premium.

Does the price include buyer's premium?

No. All prices on wsky1 are hammer prices only. Buyer's premium at major Scotch whisky auction houses currently runs at 24–28% on top of the hammer price. A bottle of Bowmore 1989 16 Year Old that hammers at £170 would cost the buyer approximately £214 all-in including buyer's premium.

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