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Perhaps the most-hyped watch up for sale this auction season was the Rolex GMT-Master Reference 1675, worn by Marlon Brando in the film Apocalypse Now. On Tuesday night, it sold for $1,952,000 including buyer’s premium at Phillips’ Game Changers auction in New York.
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At Phillips’ Game Changers auction in New York, one of the headlining celebrity watches of the event, Jack Nicklaus’ yellow gold Reference 1803 Day-Date has sold for $1,220,000 including buyer’s premium. It’s a huge win for charity, as the proceeds will go to Nicklaus and wife Barbara’s Nicklaus Children’s Healthcare Foundation.
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Something was bothering my friend Professor Brendan Cunningham (Horolonomics) and me — and likely other enthusiasts — as we paged through the Phillips Game Changers catalog: why were there no public estimates for the two highlights of the auction, the Marlon Brando GMT and the Jack Nicklaus Day-Date? Both of these watches with celebrity provenance, hyped as much as any in the past few auction seasons, had estimates that simply read “available upon request.”
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Phillips’ Gamechangers auction is being held in New York today. It’s the “Brando auction” the watch world has been abuzz about for the past six months. I’ll spare you any more ink on the Brando Rolex GMT, and let you read Phillips’ article on the piece if you haven’t yet; Phillips has an amazing marketing team, and there has been plenty of content and promotion around this auction.
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Back in October, I wrote about my buying experience with Chronext. It’s an online secondary market platform that connects authorized dealers from around the world with customers, often allowing for prices much lower than MSRP. Chronext sources and inspects all the watches it sells before shipping them to buyers around the world.
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On December 4, Reddit released its 2019 Year in Review, highlighting the top communities, trends, and topics for the year. I’ll save most of the highlights for the tech blogs, but it was a pretty big year for Snoo the Reddit alien: users grew by 30%, Bill Gates did an AMA with 110k upvotes, and Reddit took on a $150 million investment from Tencent, which users loved. As it turns out, watches also played a small part in Reddit’s year in review.
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Around the holidays, outlets are prone to putting out all kinds of “gift guides”. This year, instead of a listicle that Santa can check twice, I thought I’d give a review of a book I often see on these lists: The Watch, Thoroughly Revised.
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Swiss watch exports grew by 1.5% in October 2019 as compared to a year prior, totalling 2.03 billion Swiss francs (CHF). But, growth was hindered by the Hong Kong market, which saw exports decline by 29.7%, while the rest of the world was up 6.5%. Like outside the watch industry, much of the headlines within the watch industry have been dominated by Hong Kong throughout the year.
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It’s a pretty common question: What’s the best in affordable vintage Rolex? Sure, six-figure Daytonas and Submariners grab all the headlines, but most of us just want to get our hands on any Rolex, much less some of the most desirable references around. And with authorized dealers often having limited stock of some of the more in-demand models, that means turning towards pre-owned or vintage Rolex as an alternative.
Modern, entry-level Rolex starts at $5,4000 with the 36mm Oyster Perpetual (and $5,700 for the 39mm version), so we’ll use that as our baseline to define what “affordable” means. Luckily, vintage Rolex can often be found at a fraction of that price. One of Rolex’s strengths as a brand is its offerings at both the extremely high and low end of the market. From six- and seven-figure Paul Newman Daytonas to $1,000 Oyster Perpetuals, there’s something for almost everyone.
I also gave a Primer on Transitional Rolex recently. Many of these models are affordable, and slightly more modern, thus making them easier to find around the internet. It’s a great companion piece to this article as you search for your next (or first) great vintage Rolex.
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John Mayer and Shawn Mendes wearing some modern classics on IGTV
As I’ve written here before, John Mayer’s weekly IGTV show, “Current Mood” is a goofy and casual 45-minute way for Mayer to hang out with friends and stream it to a few thousands fans every Sunday night. Over the last year, he’s even had some pretty good guests (and musical performances) from the likes of Halsey, Khalid and Charlie Puth (a noted Rolex fan himself). After taking a break to go on his world tour, Mayer’s back for season 3.
His first guest of the year was pop star Shawn Mendes, with a FaceTime assist from Camila Cabello. As everyone watch enthusiast knows, Mayer is the watch god; I’ve covered his collection at length here. While I tune into “Current Mood” because Mayer is sometimes moderately funny, I usually just like to see what he’s got on his wrist.
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In the run up to the Geneva auctions, we posted our preview of some of the best lots from the three big auction houses, featuring (1) under the radar lots (under $10,000), (2) next up (under $100,000), and (3) top lots. With the results in, it’s time to take a look at how all the lots performed.
We already took a look at the results from Phillips’ Geneva Auction X, but below is a more comprehensive look at the results from Geneva’s big week.
Additionally, you can find the results for every vintage Rolex Daytona up for auction from Phillips, Christie’s and Sotheby’s here.
In general, I was glad to see some under-the-radar (at auctions at least, not amongst the collector community more generally) chronographs perform particularly well. Below, you’ll see a Zenith A386 El Primero, Movado 95M and Grana Split Seconds that all out performed estimates.
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Before the fall 2019 Geneva auctions, we posted our 2019 Daytona database, compiling a list of every Rolex Daytona up for auction at Christie’s Phillips and Sotheby’s this November (sorry, Antiquorum). Now that the results are in it’s time to take a look at how the Daytona faired.
As you’ll see, four Daytonas failed to sell this season (and one earlier era chronograph, a reference 2508). If you look at these lots, you’ll notice all have some imperfections that make them less than desirable: polishing, missing lume plots, etc. This is not to say that all the lots that did sell are perfect; however, collectors have become rather discerning in what they’re willing to shell out six figures for nowadays. And, as prime examples are increasingly difficult to find on the market, the premium paid for such examples continues to grow.
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We previewed all of the big Geneva auctions a couple weeks back, and now that results are coming in, it’s time to look back at how certain lots performed.
Phillips Geneva Watch Auction X took place on November 10, and with over 180 lots up for auction, there are a lot of takeaways. Below are a few general thoughts, as well as the watches we highlighted from our preview and what those pieces ultimately sold for at auction.
While not completely surprising, it’s impressive that the pink gold Rolex Ref. 6062 “Stelline” matched the Ref. 4113 split seconds chronograph (both pictured above) with a sale price of $1.940 million. It’s particularly impressive considering there are thought to be 50 Ref. 6062 models manufactured in pink gold, and only 12 Ref. 4113 models made in stainless steel.
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On November 9, Christie’s played host to the biennial Only Watch auction, raising money for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Some of the most renowned manufacturers create unique pieces for the auction (with F.P. Journe even developing a unique movement for his pieces). Much of the speculation around this year’s auction was around the unique Patek Phillipe Grandmaster Chime in stainless steel: would it become the most expensive watch in the world? Of course, Paul Newman’s Paul Newman had set the record for most expensive wristwatch at $17 million in 2017, while the Patek Phillipe Henry Graves Supercomplication pocket watch held the record for the most expensive watch, having sold for $24 million in 2014.
Well, the Grandmaster Chime blew away both watches, hammering for CHF 31 million. The watch is polarizing, mainly because … it’s kind of ugly. One can acknowledge the technical accomplishment of building this watch, but still be disappointed that this watch now carries the mantle of “most expensive watch in the world,” and will become representative of watch collecting as a whole in many ways.
Read MoreWhether you like to call it the Oscars of watches or not, the fact remains that the GPHG is the watch world’s biggest awards event of the year. The prizes are highlighted by the “Aiguille D’Or” prize.
Let’s first acknowledge the problems with GPHG: Winning watches tend to be expensive and not necessarily representative of what people are actually buying from Switzerland; and because brands self-nominate, Patek and Rolex do not participate (they can’t handle the risk of losing!). That said, it’s still a wonderful evening to highlight some of the best of what’s come out of the manufacturers in the past year.
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Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash
Watch collectors have always used the internet to share information, help fellow collectors identify and buy watches, and document their latest find. Over the decades, this has moved from forums to highly professional digital publications, but the premise remains the same: information is essential. You can’t buy a vintage watch without digging deep into the story behind a particular brand or reference. I’ve attempted to compile some of the best in-depth articles on vintage watches from around the web. The core of this page is (and will continue to be) these in-depth articles. I’ve also begun to collect various other links to videos, podcasts, groups, etc. that one might find interesting in their collecting journey.
This is a dynamic page, and I plan to add more to it — for example, in-depth explanations of movements and complications, recommended dealers, and more. Let me know what you’d like to see from this page going forward.
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With the fall 2019 Geneva auctions fast approaching, it’s time we give a preview of what’s to come over the auctions from Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s from November 10-12. There are roughly 200 lots per auction, meaning there’s quite a bit to get through. As such, we’ll divide this preview into three categories: (1) Top Lots, (2) Next Up (pieces with estimates under $100,000) (3) Under the Radar (pieces with estimates under $10,000 or so).
We’ve already created our “Vintage Daytona Database” highlighting all vintage Rolex Daytona (and pre-Daytona chronographs) up for auction this fall, so we’ll largely eschew discussing those in this preview, though some are too good not too highlight.
While most previews start at the top and move down, we’ll do the opposite, starting with watches that are flying under the radar. Unlike in past previews, I’m giving quick hits of each piece, instead of going in-depth on a smaller subset of watches.
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The fall 2019 auction season is here, with the Geneva auctions from the three major auction houses — Christie’s, Phillips, and Sotheby’s — scheduled for November 10-12. Much of the auction market is driven by interest in Rolex, and much of the interest in Rolex continues to be driven by the Daytona.
So, I have created a database of every vintage Daytona (Ref. 6239, 6241, 6262, 6263, 6264, 6265) up for auction this fall. I have also added some other vintage Rolex chronographs and “pre-Daytonas” on offer because they are just as cool, and perhaps the watch of the season is a Rolex Ref. 4113 split-seconds chronograph from the pre-Daytona era.
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