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Roger Federer. Leonardo DiCaprio. Four one-of-a-kind Rolex Daytonas. And one of the most impressive environmental initiatives in the world.
Rolex watches have been fixtures of the auction world for decades. But Rolex itself has largely stayed on the other side of the auction room. That changes on Sept. 28, when the iconic Swiss watchmaker partners with Phillips in London for its first-ever charity auction, offering four jewel-encrusted Cosmograph Daytonas to benefit the Federer Foundation and DiCaprio’s Re:wild as part of its environmentally minded Perpetual Planet Initiative.
While the iconic Swiss watchmaker is famously reluctant even to confirm that a particular watch is unique, it has declared each of these four Cosmograph Daytonas, dubbed the Four Seasons, to be one of one.
Rolex created the four gem-set Daytonas to represent spring, summer, autumn and winter, each in a different precious metal and with a different natural-stone dial. And while the watches share the same basic Daytona architecture and automatic caliber 4131, their personalities are dramatically different.
Spring
Spring, reference 126599 SAVL, is cased in 18-karat white gold with a green chrysoprase dial and lilac lepidolite chronograph counters. Purple sapphires supply most of the color: eight baguette-cut and three square-cut stones serve as hour markers, while another 36 trapeze-cut purple sapphires, totaling about 5.57 carats, fill the bezel. The lugs and crown guards carry 54 brilliant-cut diamonds totaling about 0.86 carats.
It is easily the most playful of the four, pairing cool white gold with an almost springlike combination of green, lilac and purple.
Summer
Summer, reference 126595 SARO, switches to 18-karat Everose gold and a turquoise dial with counters made from heart of ruby. Its hour markers are pink sapphires, with 36 more trapeze-cut pink sapphires on the bezel, totaling about 4.32 carats. The lugs and crown guards receive the same 54-diamond treatment.
If Spring is playful, Summer is unapologetically colorful. The combination of Everose gold, turquoise, ruby and pink sapphires makes it arguably the most flamboyant of the four.
Autumn
Autumn, reference 126598 TML, uses 18-karat yellow gold with a richly mottled red-and-ochre mookaite dial, and green chrysoprase counters. Green tourmalines form the hour markers and the 36-stone bezel, again totaling about 4.32 carats, with diamonds on the lugs and crown guards.
The earthy colors make Autumn the most literal interpretation of its seasonal inspiration, and perhaps the warmest-looking of the four.
Winter
Winter may be the most dramatic of the four. Reference 126596 SABV is made from 950 platinum with a blue opal dial and lapis lazuli counters. Diamond hour markers replace the colored stones used on the other three, while the bezel is set with 36 trapeze-cut sapphires graduating from blue to fuchsia, totaling about 5.57 carats. It also has 54 diamonds on the case.
All four watches are powered by Rolex’s automatic caliber 4131, with about 72 hours of power reserve.
The watches are being sold as part of Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative, the company’s program supporting projects in environmental conservation, ocean protection, exploration and preservation of the natural world. The Federer Foundation, established by Rolex Testimonee Roger Federer in 2003, focuses on early and foundational education for children in Southern Africa and Switzerland. Re:wild, co-founded by fellow Testimonee Leonardo DiCaprio and conservation scientists in 2021, works to protect and restore wild ecosystems.
Why This Rolex Auction Is So Unusual
The unique auction raises an obvious collector question: will four different buyers take home the Four Seasons, or will one determined bidder try to keep the set intact? There is no published auction estimate, which may be just as well because there is almost no meaningful precedent. The watches were quietly shown during Watches and Wonders earlier this year.
There were some reports that Rolex was initially going to offer the set of four one-off Daytonas for about $4.9 million, asking retailers to nominate prospective owners. More than 1,000 names were reportedly submitted before, no doubt, someone pointed out that the watches could easily bring in $4 million apiece at auction. In fact, at least one collector allegedly offered $10 million for the set outright.
Meanwhile, GQ has said that if the stars align, the set could go for more than the current auction record for a Rolex Daytona, $17.8 million paid for Paul Newman’s personal Daytona in 2017. That watch remains the most expensive Rolex ever sold at auction. And in 2018, Phillips sold the only known vintage white-gold Daytona known as “The Unicorn” for $5.94 million. At the same Daytona Ultimatum sale, 32 Daytonas brought a combined $22.18 million, an average of nearly $700,000 per watch.
Those numbers put the Four Seasons auction into perspective. A unique Daytona has already approached $6 million; a celebrity-owned Daytona has approached $18 million; and one dedicated Daytona auction topped $22 million. On Sept. 28, collectors will likely establish a new benchmark: what four factory-confirmed, unique modern Rolex Daytonas are worth when Rolex itself sends them to auction.
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