Rolex Milgauss watch breaks record for highest amount paid at auction for Swiss watch made for scientists
A rare, stainless steel Rolex watch has sold for $2.5 million at an auction by Philips Auctioneers. It broke the record for the highest amount paid at auction for a watch by the Swiss brand made for scientists.
Manufactured in 1958 and designed to resist magnetic fields, the Milgauss features a black honeycomb dial, rotating bezel and a lightning bolt-shaped seconds hand. According to a report in Bloomberg, it was one of the highest-priced watches sold during a watch auction over the weekend in Geneva.
A similar version from 1958 sold at Christie’s in 2013 for 317,000 francs. The report states that another 300,000 francs are expected to be sold by Philips in 2022.
The winning bidder bought the watch on behalf of Rolex, according to people familiar with the matter. Rolex declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News. It is not uncommon for luxury watch companies to purchase their own timepieces at auction for their collection collections or for museums, Bloomberg reports. It states that Rolex discontinued the latest version of the Milgauss in March. The anti-magnetic watch was made for people working in laboratories and was never as popular as Rolex’s other “professional” models made for deep sea divers, pilots or race car drivers.
Meanwhile, an auction of a late Austrian billionaire’s jewelery that is claimed to be of Nazi-era origin has become the most expensive public sale in history, despite much criticism.
Spread over the course of two live auctions in Geneva on May 10 and 12 (the third online auction ends May 15), the hoard of necklaces, bracelets, earrings and tiaras belonging to Heidi Horton fetched a pre-sale estimate of $150 million. The former cost 138.3 million Swiss francs ($154 million), already setting a world record for a single-owner jewelry sale. A Bloomberg report said the second, which had fewer big-ticket lots, brought in 37.8 million francs, pushing the total to 176 million francs.
