Rolex

Ubik
1871

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Dear Baron

I really appreciate and like the Daytona as a watch and the PN dial is very beautiful. It was certainly not my aim to question a collectors desire or the value they may place on it.

The cocktail that goes into why we want a watch is personal, and often complicated. I've learned that unless you are inside a particular brand or model it is very
hard to understand what drives the motivation to acquire that variation. I am afflicted of the same illness, as you know, so I won't throw stones in my own glass house.

I understand that as a collector I might pay a lot for a watch that is rare but seemingly of less quality or value than others in order to complete a personal collection, if that something is missing from my own watchbox and will complete a theme for me. Or I will pay for a rare version of a watch, because I desire or understand the value of that rarity. I often find myself as a collector buying watches that I think have an audience of one - me. So I get all of that.

Bill said that "I guess the boat has left with the Rolex Daytona", yet the other auction results one either day of the Christies sale, don't seem to reflect the prices fetched in that sale.

So it's back to the question of why have Christies achieved a higher amount, not by a fractional amount, but by a huge amount, with single Daytona's selling for quarter, half and three quarter of a million dollars. To understand this question is the interest for me. It's not one of about the collectability or desirability of the Daytona, PN or not.

If I was in the market for a Rolex Daytona, would I now be looking at Christies results and thinking, that's where I need to go to get my Daytona! As a buyer does it inspire me that I would be buying something on a level playing field to the other options I might have? If I bought one of the variations that sold in the other two auctions, how would I feel about Christie's as a buyer?

So it comes back to the question, what stardust has Christies added that Sotheby's and Antiquorum just don't have? Or course this is qualified by the fact that I can't judge whether the watches between the three auctions have a fair comparability - so far no one has pointed out to me why the Christie's watches are rarer, in better condition or have the potential for the huge premium they fetched than the ones in the other auctions. I'm totally open to believing there is an explanation?

If all things are equal between the watches then either the premium has been paid because the buyers want to own a watch with the Christie's provenance, which may be enough to pay the premium, especially if Rolex as a brand won't authenticate the watches, then this is one way to do it. Or they have gotten auction fever, which I can understand as well. Or something else is happening???

Of course we don't know how many of the sales will go through, I'm not aware if Christie's publishes the data - I suspect not. We are also not aware of who actually bought these watches. Interestingly Christie's did publish some data on who bought the watches in the auction last year, which is cryptic but might have some clues.