Fine Watches
On the wrist.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Day-Date Moon Phase
A birth year piece, made the same year as its owner, that surfaced in a Koller catalog in Zurich. It is the Day-Date Moon Phase that collectors affectionately call “The Owl,” and we confirmed box and papers before setting a bidding plan with a hard ceiling. Comparable examples turn up without their original papers and trade closer to $40,000, so this was a deliberate decision to pay up for a complete, honest example rather than save money on a thinner one. It landed inside our ceiling. Two weeks from the hammer in Switzerland to the wrist in San Francisco.
Rolex Submariner No-Date
The no-date Sub is the quiet pick of the sport models, and you generally cannot walk into an authorized dealer and buy one without a long relationship, so almost everyone pays up on the secondary market. Against a retail of about $7,500, clean examples were trading around $10,500. We tracked down a private seller here in the Bay and negotiated to $8,300, roughly 20% under the going secondary price. The handoff happened in person, so no shipping, no customs, no waiting.
