Rolex Is Breaking All Its Own Rules With These One-of-a-Kind Daytonas

It’s almost guaranteed to be one of the hottest watch auctions of the decade.Rolex has already busted out of its comfort zone on numerous occasions this year, but the brand just announced its most unpredictable move yet this week.The Crown is bringing four pièce Unique Cosmograph Daytonas to auction on September 28th, with all the proceeds benefiting two charities headed by two of its top ambassadors: Roger Federer’s education-focused Federer Foundation and Leonardo DiCaprio’s conservation-centric Re:wild. The news is significant for a number of reasons, not least of which are the timepieces themselves.All the hullabaloo began back in April at Watches and Wonders, when a select few were informed that Rolex had produced four unique gem-set Daytonas corresponding to the four seasons, according to Hodinkee’s Ben Clymer. Rolex reportedly priced the set at 4 million Swiss francs (roughly $4,898,600) and asked retailers to nominate potential buyers for the entire set. Hodinkee reports over 1,000 people signaled they were interested in ponying up that kind of cash. “The names included some of the most famous people in the world,” Clymer wrote. One person also contacted the Hodinkee founder personally to relay the message that they’d be willing to pay $10 million for the set.The four Daytonas generated such intense interest that Rolex changed course and will now sell them all together through a charity auction on September 28th. Given the frenzy already surrounding the watches, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if this ends up as one of the biggest watch auction results in history.The watches themselves are sensational and designed to represent the four seasons through the most spectacular colors and gem settings. They include:“Spring” model made of 18K white gold with a chrysoprase dial, lepidolite subdials, purple-sapphire indices, 36 trapezoid-cut purple sapphires, and 54 diamonds on the case shoulders/lugs“Summer” model made of 18K Everose gold with a turquoise dial; ruby-heart subdials; pink-sapphire indices; 36 pink sapphires; and 54 diamonds“Autumn” model made of 18K yellow gold with a mookaite dial; chrysoprase subdials; green-tourmaline indices; 36 green tourmalines; and 54 diamonds“Winter” model made of 950 platinum with a blue-opal dial; lapis lazuli subdials; diamond indices; 36 sapphires in a blue-to-fuchsia gradient; and 54 diamonds.We’ve met a whole new version of Rolex this year. While the brand has created unique pieces in the past, acknowledging them has never been part of its playbook. The only thing crazier than Rolex creating an entire set of unique watches would be for the brand to produce a custom Daytona for Drake. Hold on a second…It’s not just these one-off examples; the designs in Rolex’s main catalog have also gotten wilder in recent years. In 2023, the Crown released both the “Celebration” dial—which featured multi-colored bubbles—and “Puzzle” Day-Date, which featured a set of unique emojis that appeared in the date window. That started a wild streak that culminated in the vivacious “Jubilee” Oyster Perpetual that came out this year.The auction will no doubt be a huge one, in every way possible. Rolex really never organizes these types of releases, which should only add to collectors’ determination to grab them—this has the feeling of a once-in-a-generation event. The most expensive Rolex ever sold is still Paul Newman’s Daytona, which went for $17.8 million in 2017. It feels quite realistic that this set might beat that number.Oren Hartov is a GQ contributor covering all things horological. He’s written extensively about celebrity watch culture, waxed poetic about the GMT complication, and railed against case sizes larger than 40mm. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music and a military veteran, he can be found playing the guitar, ... Read More