Two royalty-owned watches command record-breaking prices in Geneva, alongside a perfect Paul Newman Daytona and a big surprise from Patek Philippe

By James Buttery

Records were well and truly smashed in Geneva this weekend as both Phillips and Christie?s achieved unprecedented prices for a number of historic watches. We saw the most expensive Rolex at auction; the most expensive Rolex Daytona at auction, and one incredibly high Patek Philippe 2497. We also had one of the world’s most complicated watches ever made – the Patek Philippe Calibre 89 – up for sale at Sotheby’s. And guess what… it didn’t sell. Read on to hear more about that one. 
A King among watches
Aurel Bacs brought the gavel down in typically dramatic style on the star lot of Phillips Auction FIVE on Saturday. The Rolex Bao Dai Ref 6062, pictured above and below, sold for just under £4m (CHF 5,066,000), the highest price ever paid for a Rolex at auction. The watch sparked an eight-minute bidding war between ten bidders in the room and a further three on the telephone, one of whom eventually placed the winning bid. Just three black dial diamond-set examples of the triple calendar moon phase are known to exist, this being the only one with diamonds on the even hours.

Lending further provenance was the fact that the watch once belonged to His Majesty Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam. The watch was originally uncovered by Phillips in 2002.
The Daytona
But Phil...