The 18-carat gold Daytona drew 60 bids from three countries before selling to an anonymous US investor, eclipsing a record set by the same collector who consigned it.
Australia has a new most expensive watch.
A Rolex Cosmograph Daytona “Rainbow” sold for $612,000 through Sydney-based First State Auctions on Sunday night, comfortably clearing the previous national auction record of $450,000.
The result, which includes the buyer’s premium on a hammer price of $510,000, comes with a neat twist.
The old record belonged to a 1946 Patek Philippe chronograph sold through the same auction house in late 2023, and the collector who bought that watch is the same man who consigned the Rainbow Daytona.
He remains unnamed beyond “a prominent Australian tech founder”, a description that has kept the industry guessing since the sale was announced earlier this month.
The Daytona headlined a consignment of rare Swiss watches from his collection, worth an estimated $2 million-plus and billed as the most valuable single-vendor consignment of Swiss watches in Australian history. He is said to have built a collection of around 130 watches over 25 years. These were just the pieces he no longer wears.
As for the watch itself, the Ref. 126598 RBOW is about as hard to buy as a Rolex gets.
Its bezel is set with 36 baguette-cut sapphires, each graduating in colour to the next, with another 11 sapphires standing in as hour markers.
Sourcing matched gemstones limits production so severely that allocations go to the brand’s most valued clients, and secondary prices sit well beyond retail. This example was made in 2024 and was the first of its reference to be auctioned anywhere in the world.
Add a celebrity following that includes Mark Wahlberg, Post Malone, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and the appetite was always going to be there.
The watch drew 60 bids from collectors across Australia, the United States and Singapore over a week-long online auction of more than 500 lots.
The winner is staying anonymous, but is understood to be a US-based investor who intends to take the watch home and views it as a long-term holding.
“When the previous record was set in 2023, it stood as proof that world-class watches could achieve world-class prices in Australia,” said Ari Taibel, founder and director of First State Auctions.
“The Rainbow Daytona has now taken that a step further. Bidders from around the world competed for this watch, and the result puts Australia firmly on the map for collectors of rare timepieces.”
What else sold?
The Rainbow was the headline, but the collection ran deep. A Rolex Cosmograph Daytona in 18-carat white gold with a diamond-set dial made $144,000, while a Datejust Pearlmaster brought $90,000 and an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in rose gold matched it at $90,000.
A Rolex Day-Date II in Everose gold sold for $64,800, a Submariner Date in two-tone gold and steel made $52,800, and a Day-Date with diamonds went for $40,200. Beyond the watches, a Paspaley Australian South Sea pearl necklace fetched $91,200, a Hermès Birkin 25 in black Togo leather sold for $49,200 and a 7.25ct Colombian emerald ring made $46,800, well past its high estimate.
Not everything found a buyer. A diamond-set Richard Mille RM 016, a Rolex Yacht-Master estimated at up to $150,000 and a 10.04-carat loose diamond all passed in,
A second auction from the same collection, with a Rolex Sky-Dweller and a GMT-Master II “Rootbeer” among more than 400 lots, closes Sunday 26 July.
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