Auctions: How The Rolex Day-Date Became A Million-Dollar Watch
By Logan Baker
The first watch to break the million-dollar mark at auction this year wasn’t a Rolex Daytona or a complicated Patek Philippe. It didn’t have high-profile celebrity provenance, or donate its proceeds to charity. And it wasn’t discussed widely, whatsoever.
The world’s most expensive Day-Date. Credit, Sotheby’s.
Over one week has passed since that watch – a Rolex ‘Rainbow Khanjar’ Day-Date ref. 18059 – sold for more than $1,330,000 at a Sotheby’s online sale that wrapped on February 9, and I still don’t think many people realize that a new world record for the Day-Date at auction was set. In the era of rapid online discourse and Instagram-fueled reaction posts, how exactly did that happen?
In the current Rolex catalog, the Day-Date is a bit of an odd duck. It has plenty of history, sure, and there’s no denying its prominence, but it’s never seemed, to me, to enjoy the same degree of enthusiasm or scholarship found in other vintage, modern, or contemporary Rolex watches.
Don’t miss reading about Jack’s 50-year to own a Rolex Day-Date.
However, from a wider cultural lens, the Day-Date has always been synonymous with success; there are very few things that signal you’ve made it quite like a solid yellow-gold, flashy-as-hell Rolex on the wrist. It’s partly because of its inherent symbolism, you could argue, that the Day-Date has remained separate from greater “watch culture,” especially when compared to stainless-steel sport Rolex watches like the Submariner, Daytona, GMT-Master, or Explorer.
After last week’s result at Sotheby’s, and after taking the temperature of a few industry experts, I think I’m finally starting to understand the legacy appeal of the Day-Date. More importantly, it’s become clear to me that the Day-Date has already begun the process of shedding its attention-getting baggage and is prepared to reach more wrists than ever before.
Here’s how it happened.
History Matters – And The Day-Date Has 60+ Years Of It
The Day-Date is the crown jewel of the Rolex catalog, though not everyone realizes that. Despite the outsize attention enjoyed by Rolex’s stainless steel dive watches, chronographs, and GMTs on Instagram, Rolex doesn’t consider any …read more
