You know the vintage market is still as hot as Hades when a 1958 Rolex Milgauss is making headlines.
Last week Dealers, collectors and watch press flocked to Geneva for auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips, and Antiquorum. Thankfully, sentiment had changed in pre-auction coverage with modern ‘hype’ watches receiving less spotlight than the truly rare and wonderful pieces going to hammer.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the week past was none other than a 1958 Rolex Milgauss, which sold for US$2.5 million (AU$3.75 million), setting a stratospheric record for the quirky Rolex model. The rare and pristine ‘full-set’ Milgauss in question, was estimated to sell at US$1.1 million (AU$1.65 million), a result which would have doubled the 2013 sale of a 1958 model for CHF 317,000 ($AU528,712).
However, a bidding war ensued between an American collector and a buyer who was, reportedly, shopping on behalf of Rolex. Seemingly determined to add the watch to their private collection, it was the unidentified buyer who secured the lot for more than double the estimate made by Phillips. While it’s an astonishing amount of money, it is but a crumb to Rolex (if they were indeed the buyer) who Morgan Stanley estimated made CHF 9.3 billion in sales in 2022.
Discontinued this year, the Rolex Milgauss was first produced in 1958, designed to resist magnetic fields, and was preferred by those ‘working in the field’. It’s safe to say that over the last decade – despite the proliferation of interest in the steel sports watch – it has failed to truly engage the masses so it’s unsurprising Rolex has chosen to focus on the models that consumers gush over.
For many enthusiasts, Milgauss models like the 1958 sold over the weekend, and the 1980s produced 1019, are among the most desirable sports watches the brand has ever made, so it’s refreshing to see them getting the coverage they deserve.
