{"id":68853,"date":"2021-08-19T06:28:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T05:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/?p=68853"},"modified":"2021-08-19T07:43:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T06:43:24","slug":"rolex-is-a-mere-pretender-to-the-patek-philippe-crown-at-watch-auctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/rolex-is-a-mere-pretender-to-the-patek-philippe-crown-at-watch-auctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolex is a mere pretender to the Patek Philippe crown at watch auctions"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rolex made such a splash in 2017 when a Paul Newman-owned Daytona sold for $17.5 million that the casual observer might think it has dominated the auction world\u2019s top ranked sales ever since. Not so, observes Simon De Burton, who sees Patek Philippe firmly maintaining its reputation as the king of auction brands and a number of rising stars like Cartier, F. P. Journe and Philippe Dufour regularly grabbing the attention of expert collectors.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Anyone who keeps a close eye on the salerooms will probably know that around a dozen vintage Rolex watches have broken the million dollar barrier during the past six years, with some prices soaring to hitherto unimagined heights \u2014 notably the ex-Paul Newman Cosmograph Daytonas sold in 2017 and 2020 for $17.75m and $5.4m respectively, the unique, white gold Reference 6265 ‘Unicorn’ sold for charity by super-collector John Goldberger in 2018 and the Reference 6062 one-off originally owned by Vietnamese emperor ‘Bao Dai’ that drew $5.06m in 2017.<\/p>\n
But what might surprise those who have only been paying attention to Rolex auction prices since 2015 is the fact that, until a decade ago, no watch by the illustrious dial name had even entered into the magical realms of seven figures at auction.<\/p>\n
That changed in the spring of 2011 when Christie’s drew $1.1m for a 1942 Reference 4113, one of a dozen examples known of the maker’s only split-seconds chronograph.<\/p>\n