Turquoise Blue Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sells For Nearly $70,000 USD

Source:  Images and content by James Buttery @ Hypebeast.  See the original article here - https://hypebeast.com/2022/5/turquoise-blue-rolex-oyster-perpetual-41-sells-70000-usd-tiffany-blue

The demand for powder blue dials shows no signs of slowing, with a turquoise blue Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41 selling at auction in Geneva for CHF 69,300 ($69,500 USD) a premium of 1,177% its retail price.

Lot 1 at Christie’s Geneva Rare Watches auction, a “like new” 2021 Ref. 124300 went for nearly $70,000 while Lot 2, a “Coral Red” example from the same year, hammered for CHF 50,400 ($50,600 USD) illustrating the gulf in value between the turquoise blue watch and the other four dial colors in the recently discontinued series.

The price has set a new high-water mark for the hugely popular model, which retailed for $5,900 at launch in 2020, even surpassing the highest prices listed on Chrono24 by $15,000 USD. While the 2020 Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41 was already attracting significant premiums on the resale market, the blue-dialed variant shot up in price following the release of Patek Philippe’s Ref. 5711/1A-018 Tiffany Nautilus, while a number of other brands released similarly colored dials to capitalize on the hype.

The auction, which achieved $24,076,357 in sales, featured a number of other highlights from Rolex including a diamond-set 18K yellow gold Rolex Daytona Ref 6269 ‘Jack of Diamonds’ from 1985, which sold for CHF 1.6M USD ($1.62M USD), a Paul Newman Tropical Lemon Daytona Ref. 6264, which sold for CHF 1.254 million ($1.26M USD), and a Rolex Daytona Ref. 6241 champagne Paul Newman which achieved CHF 1,071,000 ($1,080,000 USD). Another Rolex Daytona with a striking green chrysoprase dial from 2007 also sold for CHF 201,600 ($203,400 USD).

“Rolex continues to reach new heights of desirability,” says Rémi Guillemin, head of watches, Christie’s Geneva. “And probably also thanks to a pool of new and young bidders and buyers from around the world. 51% of new bidders were millennials, showing that the market continues to open up to bidders who have never before stepped into an auction room to buy watches. 16 world records were broken, with Daytonas remaining the ‘Queens’ of the game.”

The sale also saw an incredible CHF 819,000 paid for a neo-vintage Cartier Crash from 1990, following a world record $1.5M USD being paid for a 1967 example last week.

Elsewhere in watches, Cardi B wears her $300,000 USD black ceramic Audemars Piguet Mother’s Day gift.