Christies Auction Results -

Surpassing all expectations, ROLEX DAYTONA "LESSON ONE" –a prestigious single-themed evening auction featuring 50 exceptional examples of the world's most celebrated chronograph wristwatch, totalled SFr.12,032,850 /$13,248,167 / €9,866,937, selling 100% by lot and by value, at Christie's Geneva.

Created by Aurel Bacs to mark the 50^th anniversary of Rolex most iconic model, this unique sale presented only the best and most mythical Daytona wristwatches ever produced.

The top lot of the evening was an extremely important stainless steel chronograph wristwatch, ref. 6263/6239, Paul Newman model, manufactured in 1969, which sold for $1,088,889 / SFr.989,000.

Aurel Bacs, International Head of Christie's Watch Department , commented: “Christie's first ever evening auction dedicated to wristwatches proved an unprecedented success. With four hundred people in the saleroom and plenty more queuing outside, I rarely experienced a similar rock concert atmosphere from the rostrum. Possibly the most rigorously curated watch auction ever staged, each lot was selected by Christie's watch department in partnership with Mr. Pucci Papaleo according to a disciplined approach to originality, condition and provenance. Setting 50 world records for 50 watches as well as achieving an absolute record price for any Rolex Daytona ever sold at auction, Rolex Daytona "Lesson One" will be remembered as an historical event”.


Source: Christies - Rolex Daytona Lesson One - November 2013

Rolex. An extremely rare and important stainless steel chronograph wristwatch with pulsation dial and bracelet
Signed Rolex, Cosmograph, Daytona, ref. 6239, case no. 1'695'328, manufactured in 1967

Rolex. A very rare and attractive 18K gold chronograph wristwatch with black dial and box
Signed Rolex, Cosmograph, Daytona, Paul Newman model, ref. 6239, case no. 1'757'920, manufactured in 1969

Source: Christies - Rolex Daytona Lesson One - November 2013

Love the 6263/6239, very sexy and charming.

Thank you Bill.

Cheers

Francois from Down Under

 

Money seem to be no object these days.

What people want people get.

Bill

I really think that the auction results are going just northbound these days, we used to think 500,000 was high for a reasonably rare patek but the near 4 million for the titanium 5004 has clearly proven otherwise...

The prime pieces always seem to find buyers and with every auction we continue to make higher highs until....

The bottom drops out but then the sellers hold back and the market comes back and the cycle repeats.

Bill

it the search for good/alternative investments, because "classical" investments don´t deliver these days and some people just feel they have to something with their money?
If you can´t trust your banker anymore, you already have to many real estates ... and you don´t have enough money for THE art market ...

Those results are crazy, totally crazy!

Maybe I should check my bank vault regarding hidden gems ...

Oliver

excess available funds and find that a "normal" return of say 7-8 % is nowhere near enough. So speculation starts, it's just another game and as such in the end there will be the suckers who entered the game to late.

Cheers

Francois

Yes, I think so

Oliver

Where the themed sale resulted in some inflated prices of buyers who 'bought into the mania'.   Did history just repeat itself... as prices for some rather abundant models yielded astronomical prices?   Or the cheeky part of me wants to ask how can I submit a daytona for Lesson 2?  

bankers/customers with some money left, after their crisis

I bet you're right....sure

Cheers

Francois

 

I venture for a what is in my opinion the most likely profile. The person is in his (I think he is a male) mid 30 to 40 years old, smart thinking, wearing Armani or Zegna suits or the like, Church shoes or the like, suntanned, plays squash and goes to the gym. He is most likely working in the financial market, with a vague knowledge of horology not passion just the knowledge acquired through reading articles posted in financial revues about wrist watches, the craze about those wrist watches which sometime can be worth much, much more as second hand than when first purchased new, the brands are often Patek Philip and few others but Rolex! Wow Rolex and linked to the name Paul Newman, that's a killer and judging by some prices asked, this could be a excellent move, no one has done it before in this scale with a Rolex! He purchases one at an auction, of course, he knows that there will be publicity and with a little bit of luck someone, his "brother in arms" be it a colleague working for the same firm or a competitor will want to out do him. Bingo, 10% premium, real quick. What a brilliant idea! Will he wear it? On extremely rare occasions perhaps and making sure that "people" know. Will he love it? I doubt.

Disclaimer:  The character appearing in this post is fictitious. Any resemblance to a real person, is purely coincidental.

Cheers

Francois from Down Under

 

Nicolas- I was there in the room and watched Frederick from Christies buying at LEAST 6 or possible 7 of the top 12 lots.

When you get the best scholars in the world for a line of Rolex together with the worlds best auctioneer you get the result you got last night. Yes prices were vey strong. But the offering was equally as strong. The atmosphere was electrifying! 

It is one of those things that seem to divide vintage Rolex collectors. You wither buy-in to the theme or you leave it alone completely. The trouble with the vintage is that i suspect there are even more variations and permutations than for Subs. I met a collector in Munich...a really nice guy. I asked him what he liked to collect and he said vintage Dayto.....especially Paul Newman. I asked him what models he had collected.....he said all of them, including the various permutations!! Though he did say he had just one more to complete. My jaw had dropped a lot!

Unlike the price, it sky rocketed In all seriousness, did you pick it up?

Cheers

Francois from Down Under

and it did work

Cheers

Francois

... its true that the atmosphere was out of this world. Rolex is a real phenomena in the watch world, and daytona sits on the top of the hill. Priceless.... or very expensive

you'll have to forgive my ignorance, but looking at the sale, the PN dial seems to appear in multiple refrences.

Given the extra value placed on the dial is there a way to authenticate the dial to the watch?

No.

watches came with a certificate of authenticity from Rolex either?

Then the question I have to ask, is what is going on?

Is the provenance of having been through the sale at Christies worth the heavy premium for these versions?

Is it not fair to assume that the buyers who are spending this amount of money are educated in what they are buying and
have an idea of the going market rate?

Or is there an explanation I'm missing because I don't understand the inner logic of the vintage Daytona? (which is entirely probable). I am genuinely interested in knowing more and understanding the logic behind the sale?

In terms of the dials, it's hard for us to say any vintage watch came with the dial we see on it, however we make an assumption that is the case if the dial
is expected on that watch.

If we are unable to say that a specific reference came with a specific dial layout, then we make an assumption based on the
known dials that could be expected to come with that watch, period specific and correct signatures, etc. Then a premium is paid on the desirability of that dial on that reference of watch, for example an Omega 33.3 with a simple white dial might not command as much as the same watch with a black four colour complex dial?

However if you can't make a basic assumption on the PN dial, in terms of either it being period correct to that version/age of watch. Then why do we think there is such a huge premium for it?

It will be interesting to see whether dealers change their pricing in response to this and whetehr in six months the pricing on these will have changed to reflect these auction prices?

This message has been edited by Ubik on 2013-11-11 10:07:11

If one switch dials or case so that a watch is period correct for the purpose of selling at a higher price and collectors / traders INSIST it is " original"  ...........i find that " unethical". I am not saying all vintage watches are like this. Many are original in the true sense. This message has been edited by Iceman on 2013-11-11 17:39:19

I'm not sure if you're referring just to Rolex's or to vintage watches in general?

Like you say I can understand the comfort of owning a vintage Patek with the provenance and back-up they can supply.

There are lots of other wonderful brands out there, besides Patek and Rolex. Collecting vintage watches can be rewarding, but it
excercises different muscles than collecting modern watches. Often requiring a lot more research and patience.

In truth I don't think we have any more problemes than most other collectible vintage items.

....you can add to your list the fact that originally, the PN version of the dial was very unusual. Most people elected to go with the normal standard issue dial. How many PN dials were made? Who knows. Estimates vary at between 5-10% of the total. However, once they became valued, a large number of fakes were made....so truly good ones. Now, when I walk down Bond St in London, i see more PN dials for sale than i see standard-issue!!

to do a better estimate of PN produced let's start from watch production data ; so roughly :
1) steel 6239-6240-6241-6262-6263-6264-6265 : around 50.000 watches ( not so rare .. LLLOOOLL )
2) gold ( same references as above ) : around  5.000
( these data about production are absolutely not estimates btw ).
thus considering also batches of replacement dials ( made with the same dies ) my estimate is :
a) steel : roughly 4.000 ( maybe 2.500 for free pushers and 1.500 for screw-down ones )
b) gold  : roughly 600-700 ( maybe 400 for free pushers ).