A ROLEX Daytona watch has fetched a record sum of £1.99m at a recent Sotheby’s auction.
The watch – a John Player Special (JPS) model, reference 6241 – appeared on Sotheby’s Important Watches Sale’s top lot in Geneva, Switzerland on Sunday.
The watch, made in 1968, appeared on the auction for an initial estimate of between £500,000 to £1m.
However, the 18 carat yellow gold watch was claimed for nearly twice its top estimate, at CHF 2,238,000 / £1,991,377, setting a new world record in the process.
The seven-way bidding battle lasted around eight minutes, with only one online bidder remaining in the way of the winning collector who clinched victory with a final CHF 100,000 bid.
The final price achieved for the watch makes it the world record for any Daytona JPS model, and the fifth most valuable manual winding Daytona ever sold at auction.
It is believed that 3,000 reference 6241 were produced and only 300 in 18 carat yellow gold cases.
Among these, only a small fraction was fitted with the coveted John Player Special dial.
These watches were mostly fitted with black dials with gilt subsidiaries or gilt dials with black subsidiaries.
Additionally, this timepiece is particularly valuable given its incredibly good condition – the watch has never been serviced by Rolex, as there is no inscription on the back.
Mike Wallhagen, head of Sotheby’s Watches in Geneva said: “For a watch nearly 55 years old, it is in staggeringly good condition with all its parts intact and has never been serviced.
“It also possesses the added bonus of presenting some of the rarest design elements to be found in any JPS reference.”
JPS stands for “John Player Special” – a reference to a British tobacco sponsored Team Lotus Formula One car of the 1970s.
The black and gold colour scheme was shared by both the watch and the racecar.
