Rolex is cornering the Vintage Market – My Geneve Watch Auction Report – May 2023. One paddle took care of several world record prices achieved last weekend during the watch auctions in Geneve. The mysterious lady is known to insiders as representative of Rolex. She was busy cornering the market for any ultra rare Rolex that came to the market. The elusive Daytonas Ref 6270 that sold for massive Chf 3,7 million, the steel minty Milgauss Ref 6541 for record breaking Chf 2,3 million both at Phillips, then she secured the yellow gold Paul Newman JPS Daytona at Sotheby’s for Chf 2,3 million. Thes ..read more

The Story about Rolex Prototypes of dial maker SINGER…. I’m excited to show you some super interesting SINGER prototype dials mainly made for Rolex. Not only rare design proposals for the DateJust but also a handful examples SINGER made for the legendary Submariner and the Daytona. We now get a much better view of the dial makers catalogue of 1967 – 1968 that got presented to Rolex, Tudor, Omega and for instance Universal, the clients SINGER had back in the days. Once you see the pictures I like to share of the dial studies showing SINGER to their serveral clients, the possibil ..read more

The Rolex Sultan of Oman Story… The Rolex Company has made a wide range of different watches during their existence. Many different references have been made for special purposes, those for us collectors so much interesting are the Sports or Utility versions. Besides the Military Submariner batches made for the MOD in the UK, for the Forza del Peru in Chili and the Comex divers submariners in France, Rolex has also delivered some fine models to the UAE and for Oman. The special Rolex deliveries for the Sultan of Oman is this post dedicated. Unworn, NOS ( New Old Stock) Rolex Seadweller ..read more

The Vintage Rolex Buyer’s Guide by Philipp Stahl. So far 650.000 unique visitors have read my “Vintage Rolex Buyer’s Guide”. In average it took you 5 minutes each to read my Rolex collectors tutorial. Thats’ 3,25 million FREE minutes of vintage Rolex Education! Do you want to learn to buy vintage Rolex safely? Then start now with my extensive “Vintage Rolex Buyer’s Guide” thats free for you to study here online. But be prepared, this is a LONG article that will take some of your time to digest!  I noticed yet again that even seasoned collectors ask me on a regular bas ..read more

Analyze the condition of your vintage Rolex! In this RPReport I share my extensive checklist so you can learn to analyze your vintage Rolex condition correctly! Since I receive many emails from around the world with questions if their Rolex are original or not, I started to write a checklist so you can start evaluating most of the condition by yourself. Questions like: What are the exact points you have to look for, which little detail is important and has influence on the price are important questions I’m gonna try to explain to you in this RPReport. So lets start to learn t ..read more

The Rolex Submariner Collectors Story. The history of the Rolex Submariner from 1954 to the present day has always been exciting to me. Not only the early 1950-ies when the director at Rolex, Rene P Jeanneret, (Why have we never got more information about this important director by Rolex?!) a gentleman and enthusiastic diver, was a major force in encouraging Rolex to manufacture a “sports” watch with a diving theme that also could be used as an elegant dress watch. Also in the 60-70-ies and early 80-ies the Submariner has always been the dive watch to have. After the huge succ ..read more

Learn to know the value of your vintage Rolex. What is the price of your vintage Rolex in current market?  One of the most asked question I get every day is, what is my vintage Rolex worth or what is the price of my watch? As this issue has been discussed in depth on every specialist Rolex forum since many years, I’m not trying with this report to undermine the conclusions but merely want to add more information about how to determine the value of your vintage Rolex. How do I find out what my Rolex is worth? And then, what’s the best way to sell it? The most common thing to do to co ..read more

The importance of the vintage Rolex dial in watch collecting. Modern watch collecting has become all about the condition of the dial. Some watch specialist say that about 80-90% of the value is in the dial nowadays. For outsiders this sounds silly or totally unlogic because a watch is made of lots of spare parts to become an iconic timepiece thats worth collecting. But nothing is more true nowadays, indeed collecting vintage Rolex is focussing on the condition of the dial. In specific about the dial patina. Once you studied my “Rolex Buyers Guide” you know modern watch collecting i ..read more

A lot has already been written about the impact of the luminous used in wristwatches. In specific the turn from using radium to tritium has been discussed in length on vintage Rolex Forums. Today I don’t want to debate the dangers of early radium nor the legal impact radiation had for the swiss watch companies. I merely want to make a general overview that’s useful for Rolex collectors to understand the differences of luminous, their used time period, the influence it had on the condition of the dial and what typical details one has to look for when analyzing a vintage Rolex. As you ..read more

Today I went to see my old buddy Helmut Crott who made a important book about watch dials. The extensive archive he has put together over the last 50 years has made him the to go to expert if you are looking for more proven evidence. Many auction houses and important collectors have reached out to Mr Crott over the years. His bibliotheek of original documents of dial makers such as Stern and others is one of a kind. He’s in the possession of all the pictures details made by these dial manufactories and combined it in his recently launched book “Le Cadran”. Besides all this historical importan ..read more