The Geneva Papers™
The Geneva Papers Vintage Rolex Market Report — October 21, 2026
Week two — 1,678 listings tracked across 12 venues, the desk's first fully reconciled twelve-venue week. The story is Geneva in November: sixteen genuinely new flagship auction lots surfaced in our sweep — ten at Sotheby's Important Watches (Nov 8–9), led by a 6239 'Paul Newman' estimated at CHF 180,000–300,000 and four 6263s at CHF 100,000–200,000 each — plus lots at Antiquorum (Nov 7–8) and Christie's (Nov 9); with the weekend fully catalogued, our sweep now counts 32 tracked flagship lots across the three houses. Every auction figure in this edition is an estimate or a current bid, never a result. The inaugural report's auction-watch lot closed the week the honest way: Antiquorum's 1974 COMEX Submariner (ref. 5514/5513) was offered in New York on Oct 18 against a $80,000–120,000 estimate, and as of Oct 20 the house has published no realised price — so this report claims none. One gap, stated plainly: Phillips was unreachable all week.
What the papers show this week, and what they pointedly do not.
How to read this report
Three kinds of number appear in these pages, and they are never mixed. An asking price is what a seller wants. A realized price is what a buyer actually paid, and it appears here only with evidence behind it: a dated auction result, a confirmed dealer sale, a documented transaction. An estimate is an auction house’s expectation, printed as an estimate and never as a result. A listing that leaves the market is reported as gone from the market — never as sold.
The ten references, on file.
A full week for the reference. Chrono24 carried a new example at $11,833 asking, and the 'Underline' dial tracked since the inaugural report read $121,110 on its latest check — small nightly moves on the same listing, recorded exactly as displayed. Bulang and Sons' 4-liner gilt example (€39,900) lived a complicated week in the dealer's own pages — flagged off our sweep on Oct 17, back on the market at the same price on Oct 18 — movement reported as movement, not as a sale. Two new Catawiki lots stood at current bids of €4,050 (ending Oct 26) and €6,550 (ending Oct 25) — bids, not asking prices. Auction watch: Sotheby's Geneva offers an 'Exclamation Dial' with pointed crown guards (circa 1960) on Nov 8, estimate CHF 26,000–50,000; Antiquorum's Geneva sale (Nov 7–8) carries two examples, estimated at CHF 4,000–6,000 and CHF 20,000–30,000. Estimates, not results. Asking prices only this week — no confirmed sale.
No realized prices to record this week.
The deepest bench of the week again. New Chrono24 arrivals included examples at $11,499, $11,950, and $11,144 asking, a no-serif full set at $25,274, a 1969 original-owner full set at $45,000, a spider dial at $14,650, a meters-first matte dial at $29,599, and — on Oct 17 — a Maxi dial at $10,850, a pumpkin dial at $13,946, and an example at $10,826. eBay's first full sweep since the desk opened added whole watches from $8,800 to a tropical meters-first dial at $16,000, all asking. Bulang and Sons' example that sat on hold last week now reads sold on the dealer's own page — a status read, with no price published, so no realized figure is claimed. On Catawiki a new lot climbed from a €110 opening bid to a €4,350 current bid by Oct 19; a Grailzee auction stood at a $100 opening bid. Auction watch: Sotheby's offers a circa-1978 example on Nov 9 (estimate CHF 7,000–14,000), and Antiquorum's Geneva sale carries five, led by a Military-issue example at CHF 150,000–250,000 and an Albino dial at CHF 50,000–70,000. And the payoff to last week's auction watch, stated plainly: Antiquorum's 1974 COMEX Submariner (ref. 5514/5513, the no-escape-valve example) was offered in New York on Oct 18 against a $80,000–120,000 estimate; as of Oct 20 the house has published no realised price for the lot, so no result is reported here.
No realized prices to record this week.
Bulang and Sons added a Mk4 Red dial example at €19,900 asking on Oct 16, alongside the Mk1 example at €12,900 tracked since week one. Chrono24's week included a Red Sub Mk6 dial at $23,750, a Mk2 meters-first pumpkin-patinas example at $39,995, and examples at $13,500 and $11,199. A new Catawiki lot opened at a €1 bid and stood at a €4,300 current bid by Oct 19 — a bid, not an asking price. A Grailzee auction opened at a $100 bid. HQ Milton's 18k blue-dial example held at $27,850 asking all week, and Watch Club London's reserved example remains marked at £32,500 — a dealer's reserve marking, not a price achieved. Auction watch: Sotheby's offers a yellow-gold tropical-dial example on Nov 8 (estimate CHF 26,000–50,000); Antiquorum carries a complete example at CHF 10,000–15,000 — and, noted so it is not mistaken for one, a dial-only lot. No confirmed sale this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
HQ Milton's Paul Newman held at $265,000 asking all week, after the previous week's brief $155,000 read — recorded exactly as displayed each night, with no explanation offered by the listing. Bulang and Sons' tropical-dial example (€79,900) read sold on the dealer's page on Oct 17, then was verified live again at the same price by the dealer's full enumeration on Oct 18 — a status reversal in the dealer's own pages, with no realized figure at any point. Chrono24 carried an example at $70,000 asking alongside last week's Paul Newman full set ($345,017) and Cherry Red ($87,250), both still on the market. Auction watch: the week's headline lot is Sotheby's Paul Newman (circa 1968) on Nov 8, estimate CHF 180,000–300,000; Christie's online Geneva Edit offers an example at CHF 24,000–45,000, closing Oct 22; Antiquorum's Geneva sale carries one at CHF 25,000–35,000. All estimates, never results.
No realized prices to record this week.
The quietest Daytona on the dealer side for a second week — Chrono24 carries 24 listings and no individual example stood out — but the auction season found the reference: Christie's Geneva live sale on Nov 9 includes a Paul Newman-dial example, estimate CHF 100,000–200,000, first seen in our sweep this week. An estimate, not a result. No asking example and no confirmed sale to report this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
The Geneva season belongs to this reference. Sotheby's offers four examples on Nov 8–9, each estimated at CHF 100,000–200,000 — two Big Reds in steel, one in yellow gold, one in 14k gold. Antiquorum carries a Big Red at CHF 50,000–70,000 and an 18k gold example at CHF 100,000–200,000 (plus, noted separately, a dial-only lot). Christie's Nov 9 sale adds one at CHF 40,000–80,000. On the dealer side, Chrono24's verified arrivals were three 1987 examples at $44,900, $49,000, and $65,000 asking, and a Big Red at $125,724; Bulang and Sons' Big Red held at €84,900. A Catawiki lot stood at a €26,000 current bid — a bid, not an asking price. Estimates are labeled estimates throughout; no confirmed sale this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
Bulang and Sons listed a Mk2 black sigma-dial example at €62,900 asking on Oct 16, and its €110,000 example — absent from one night's sweep — was verified live again at the same price. Chrono24 carried yellow-gold examples at $264,229 and $176,369 asking. Auction watch is crowded: Sotheby's Milan sells a gold example (circa 1987) on Oct 28, estimate €75,000–130,000 — previewed here, with any result belonging to a later edition; Sotheby's Geneva offers a gold example at CHF 75,000–150,000 and a Tiffany-retail example at CHF 80,000–160,000; Antiquorum carries two steel examples at CHF 40,000–60,000 and CHF 40,000–70,000 plus 'The Very Flat' at CHF 50,000–80,000; Christie's Nov 9 sale includes a gold example on a woven mesh bracelet at CHF 100,000–200,000. All estimates. No confirmed sale this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
Catawiki carried the week's movement: two new lots at current bids of €4,500 and €2,025 (the second ending Oct 19), and a third, a 1956 example, at a €600 bid toward an Oct 25 close — bids, not asking prices. Grailzee listed an example at a $19,000 buy-now asking price; an ended Grailzee lot on the same reference displays 'Sold for $18,350 on 4/6/25' — the platform's display of an April 2025 ending, noted here only so it is never mistaken for a current result. Chrono24 carried a 6610/1016 'Space-Dweller' at $24,195 asking, filed under both references because its title names both. Watch Club London's priced example held at £23,500. No confirmed sale this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
A strong dealer week: Chrono24 arrivals included a 1963 'Exclamation Point' example at $26,477 asking, a 1963 example at $20,564, a complete set at $24,125, and a matte 3-6-9 Mk1 dial at $29,989. Antiquorum's Geneva sale carries three examples, estimated at CHF 8,000–12,000, CHF 20,000–30,000, and CHF 10,000–15,000. Bulang and Sons' example sits on hold at €13,900 — on hold is neither available nor sold — and Watch Club London's priced example held at £21,500. No confirmed sale this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
Steady two-way traffic on Chrono24: arrivals at $8,495, $5,256, and $5,839 asking on Oct 15, a run of four more on Oct 16 from $6,344 to $9,400, and a $6,590 example on Oct 17. Catawiki bids rose through the week — a returning lot from €3,750 and a new lot at a €2,951 current bid by Oct 19; another lot's bid climbed from €1,901 to €3,602 across the week. All bids, never asking prices. Grailzee's ended lot still displays 'Sold for $5,500 on 10/14/26' — the platform's ended-lot display from last week, not a sale verified by this desk. No asking-price headline and no confirmed sale to report this week.
No realized prices to record this week.
The standard behind the numbers.
Coverage: this report follows the market across Chrono24, eBay, Analog:Shift, HQ Milton, Watch Club London, Bulang and Sons, Grailzee, and Catawiki, and watches the upcoming sales at Christie's, Phillips, Sotheby's, and Antiquorum. Phillips could not be covered this week (see the coverage note in this edition). Figures are drawn from the desk's nightly sweeps, Oct 15–20. Three kinds of figure appear in these pages, and they are never mixed. An asking price is what a seller is asking for a watch on the market today. A realized price is a completed sale with its price published — the only figures ever presented as results. An auction estimate is the house's expectation before the sale, labeled as an estimate and never as a result; a current bid on a live lot is labeled a bid. Prices are reported exactly as listed, in their original currency, with no conversion applied. And if a figure cannot be substantiated, it does not appear: no sale is invented, and a quiet week is reported as a quiet week.
Asking prices are only one signal. Where a sale is confirmed, the realized figure is labeled as such; everything else is an asking price, and treated accordingly. Auction estimates are never presented as results.
The Full Standardit didn’t happen
Market data on this site is published for information and education only — it is not investment advice. Vintage watch prices move on condition, provenance, and the room on the day. Past asking prices do not predict future results.