Rolex’s One-of-a-Kind Four Seasons Daytonas Raise $49.5 Million at Phillips Charity Auction

Some auctions set prices; others set the terms of the conversation. For the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, that conversation has revolved for almost nine years around a single watch: Paul Newman’s own “Paul Newman Daytona Ref. 6239, which Phillips sold in New York on October 26, 2017, for $17,752,500. It remains the highest result ever achieved for any vintage wristwatch at auction.

On September 28, 2026, in London, the conversation found a new subject. Four exclusive, gem-set versions of Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona, each one of a kind and each dedicated to a season, were auctioned individually by Phillips Senior Consultant Aurel Bacs in a sale organized by Rolex in partnership with Phillips. Together, they achieved $49,467,260 (£37,300,000), or €43,488,070 and CHF 41,153,090 at the day’s exchange rates.

Phillips describes the total as the largest consignment ever to a charity auction. It was also, in Bacs’s words, the “first-ever charity auction with Rolex, and one detail in the fine print makes the number cleaner than most auction results: buyer’s premium did not apply. The hammer is the whole story, and every dollar of it goes to the Federer Foundation and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:wild.

Rolex introduced the Cosmograph Daytona in 1963, and it has spent the six decades since refining the watch rather than reinventing it. In our view, no chronograph carries more weight in the collecting world, which is exactly why this sale landed the way it did. When we first reported on the four unique Daytonas earlier this month, it was clear the pieces themselves were unlike anything in the catalog. Coming in a year when the Crown has already surprised collectors with the Perpetual Padellone, the auction felt less like a one-off gesture than a brand in an unusually expansive mood.

Four Watches, Four Seasons

Each of the four watches embodies a different season through a combination of precious metals, natural stones, colored gemstones, and diamonds. They share a common architecture. Every dial is crafted from a natural stone with counters in a contrasting one, every bezel is set with 36 trapeze-cut gemstones, and on all four the lugs and crown guard carry 54 brilliant-cut diamonds (approx. 0.86 ct). What changes from season to season is the metal and the palette.

Summer was the evening’s top lot. Cased in 18k Everose gold, Ref. 126595 SARO pairs a turquoise dial with counters in heart of ruby. Its hour markers are eight baguette-cut and three square-cut pink sapphires in 18k pink gold settings, and its bezel is set with 36 trapeze-cut pink sapphires (approx. 4.32 ct).

It is the warmest of the four and, to our eye, the most unapologetically joyful: turquoise, ruby, and pink gold read like the height of summer from across a room. It sold for £10,300,000, or about $13.66 million.

Autumn finished just £100,000 behind. The 18k yellow gold Ref. 126598 TML is built around a dial crafted from mookaite, a stone rendered here in warm golden tones, with counters in bright green chrysoprase. Eight baguette-cut and three square-cut green tourmalines in 18k yellow gold settings serve as hour markers, and 36 trapeze-cut green tourmalines (approx. 4.32 ct) line the bezel.

The result is harvest gold set against a ring of green, the most graphic of the set and, quite possibly, the one that photographs best. It sold for £10,200,000, or about $13.53 million.

Winter is the only one of the four cased in 950 platinum, the metal that has long sat at the top of the Daytona hierarchy. Ref. 126596 SABV has a dial crafted from blue opal with counters in lapis lazuli, and it is the only piece in the set with diamond hour markers: eight baguette-cut and three square-cut diamonds in 18k white gold settings.

Its bezel is the most dramatic of the quartet. The 36 trapeze-cut sapphires (approx. 5.57 ct) shift in a gradient from blue to fuchsia, so the watch seems to move from a cold winter morning to dusk as the eye travels around the dial. It sold for £10,000,000, or $13,262,000.

Spring, in 18k white gold, is Ref. 126599 SAVL. Its dial is crafted from green chrysoprase with counters in lilac-toned lepidolite, and its hour markers are eight baguette-cut and three square-cut purple sapphires in 18k white gold settings. The bezel carries 36 trapeze-cut purple sapphires (approx. 5.57 ct).

Fresh green and soft violet on white metal make it the coolest and most restrained of the four, if a watch with a gem-set bezel can be called restrained. It sold for £6,800,000, or about $9.02 million, the lowest of the evening and still a figure few modern Daytonas could dream of.

Beneath the stones, the four watches are mechanically identical, and entirely serious. Each is powered by Calibre 4131, the self-winding mechanical chronograph movement developed and manufactured by Rolex, with a column wheel and vertical clutch for an instantaneous start, the patented Chronergy escapement, and a power reserve of approximately 72 hours.

Each is also certified as a Superlative Chronometer, the standard under which Rolex tests the fully cased watch in its own laboratories for precision, power reserve, waterproofness, and self-winding. The rate tolerance is 2/+2 seconds per day after casing. For all the color on the outside, these are working Daytonas.

Where the Result Stands

The natural point of comparison is Only Watch, the charity auction that raises funds for research into muscular dystrophy. At its 2019 edition at Christie’s in Geneva, Patek Philippes unique steel Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 sold for CHF 31,000,000 and set a world auction record for a watch. The Four Seasons total, CHF 41,153,090, surpasses that figure by more than CHF 10 million.

The qualifier matters. The Grandmaster Chime was a single watch, and this was four. But as a single consignment offered for charity, which is precisely how Phillips frames its claim, the numbers hold up.

The running order is the most revealing part of the evening, in our view. Platinum usually outranks gold, yet both the Everose Summer and the yellow gold Autumn finished ahead of Winter, and just £300,000 (about $400,000) separated the top three. Spring finished more than $4 million behind them. For watches this singular, we suspect bidders were not pricing metal or carat weight at all. They were choosing a color, and a season, to live with.

The sale also extends a remarkable run for Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo. The house holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its DECADE ONE (2015–2025) sale realizing $83 million in 2025, and its spring 2026 season achieved $235.5 million, with three watches selling above $10 million, an industry first. On a single evening in London, three more Daytonas cleared $13 million each.

Then there are the beneficiaries, which give the sale its purpose. The Federer Foundation, founded by Roger Federer in 2003 and based in Zurich, champions early and foundational learning for children across Southern Africa and Switzerland. Its work centers on strengthening early learning systems so that every child has the chance to play, learn, and thrive.

Re:wild, which Rolex Testimonee Leonardo DiCaprio co-founded in 2021, protects and restores wild ecosystems around the world, working from the conviction that the answers to climate change, biodiversity loss, and threats to human health lie in nature. The organization reports more than 590 million acres in active conservation with its partners.

“This is a historic moment for the world of watchmaking. We are deeply honoured to have played a role in this first-ever charity auction with Rolex and to support the important work of the Federer Foundation and Re:wild,” said Aurel Bacs, Senior Consultant at Phillips.

“It was a privilege to stand on the rostrum and witness the energy and passion in the room, united by shared values of excellence, craftsmanship and, above all, a commitment to making a positive difference, he continued. “The extraordinary amount raised will make a meaningful contribution to future generations and to the protection of our natural world.”

Paul Newman’s Daytona is still the record for a vintage wristwatch, and nothing about September 28 changes that. What has changed is the shape of the story. For nine years, the most famous Daytona result belonged to a watch with a legendary past. The new one belongs to four watches with a future attached, measured in classrooms in Southern Africa and Switzerland and in wild places around the world. We can’t think of a better use for a Daytona.

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Adrienne Faurote

Editor in Chief · Haute Time

As a former New Yorker, now a “Miamian,” Adrienne Faurote joined Haute Living in August of 2021. She currently serves as the Haute Media Group Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all editorial platforms within the Haute Media Group while also maintaining her role as Fashion, Jewelry & Watch Director. Prior to her position at Haute Living, Faurote was the Market Editor at Marie Claire Magazine US, amassing over ten years in the industry, becoming an authoritative voice in all things fashion, jewelry, and watches.