An extraordinary platinum Rolex is heading to public sale and may fetch $1.7 million

A mythical timepiece is set to step into the highlight.

A 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona is heading to public sale on Sunday at Sotheby’s Geneva, and may promote for as much as $1.7 million.

The watch is comprised of platinum, a subject material Rolex didn’t use on Daytona fashions till 2013. Its face is mother-of-pearl, set with 10 diamonds. Unlike just about each and every different Rolex available on the market, it used to be no longer a part of a regular assortment. It used to be privately commissioned, customized for a shopper — one thing nearly unparalleled for Rolex.

“It’s very unusual to come across a commission,” mentioned Pedro Reiser, senior watch specialist at Sotheby’s. “There are other brands which might be more flexible and do these kinds of exercises, maybe on a regular basis — but not in the space of Rolex pieces where you barely can come across any commission whatsoever.”

Only 4 of those watches are identified to exist, made for a similar circle of relatives, every with a unique dial. The watch heading to the public sale block is the final one to be bought. The others have already long past for enormous costs, topping $3 million.

There is large hype round this small paintings of steel. It is assumed to had been created beneath the management of Patrick Heiniger, Rolex’s CEO from 1992 to 2008. He ran the corporate throughout a time of primary expansion and secrecy and helped flip Rolex from a revered watch emblem into an international luxurious icon.

While rumors have swirled that Heiniger in my view commissioned or wore a identical platinum Daytona, Reiser cautions that there’s no showed hyperlink to this watch.

“That’s more of a rumor,” Reiser mentioned. “Personally, I’ve never seen him with this piece, but I know that he used to love platinum watches — mainly Day-Date models. It’s a nice story that accompanies the watch, but I think it’s more of a myth.”

The proven fact that Rolex made a platinum Daytona in 1999, lengthy sooner than it presented platinum fashions publicly in 2013, is a significant a part of the watch’s mystique.

“Back then, they only existed in stainless steel, yellow gold and white gold,” Reiser mentioned. “Having a platinum — the only known platinum Zenith Daytona — is very special.”

This specific type stands aside even from its siblings.

“This is the only one that has a diamond-set dial,” Reiser mentioned. “The others had dark mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli and turquoise stone dials, but no diamonds.”

As extra folks, particularly rich creditors and more youthful patrons, increasingly more see uncommon watches as investments, the costs of those uncommon timepieces have climbed.

According to Knight Frank’s newest index, watches have jumped greater than 125% in price during the last decade, score them a number of the top-performing luxurious investments, simply at the back of uncommon whisky and high-end dressmaker furnishings. Even after a slight cooling, with costs emerging handiest 1.7% during the last 12 months, the five-year expansion price for watches of 52.7% indicators the class stays a competent long-term play.

Demand has handiest broadened, with extra global patrons and a wave of under-30 creditors coming into the marketplace, Reiser mentioned.