Elvis's Diamond Omega Watch Fetches $1.8 Million in Auction

(Bloomberg) -- A 1960 Omega watch that belonged to Elvis Presley sold for $1.8 million at an auction by Phillips, setting a record price for the Swiss watch brand.

The 18-carat white-gold wristwatch sold for 18 times the high estimate. RCA Records gave Presley the watch as a commemoration for selling 75 million records.

The Geneva spring auction season kicked off Saturday with watch sales by New York- and London-based Phillips, which has emerged as the leading auction house for rare, vintage timepieces, ahead of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. In October, Phillips set the record for the most expensive wristwatch ever auctioned with the $17.8 million sale of a Rolex that once belonged to actor Paul Newman.

Phillips also held an auction of Rolex Daytonas, one of the most sought-after models for collectors, amassing $22.2 million total. Five timepieces sold for more than $1 million, and all 32 lots found a buyer.

The top piece was a one-of-a-kind 1970s Rolex that fetched $5.9 million, the second-highest auction price for the brand. Dubbed “The Unicorn,” the chronograph has a black dial and a white-gold bracelet made with a texture that mimics tree bark. It spent years in a private collection, and the proceeds will be donated to charity.

A separate sale held by Phillips over the weekend saw an A. Lange & Soehne timepiece set an auction record of $852,000 for the brand.

Sotheby’s, which held a $6.6 million watch auction Sunday, sold a stainless-steel Rolex Daytona Paul Newman for $948,000, more than double the high estimate. The timepiece’s three smaller dials, originally black when the watch was made in 1969, have naturally faded into a brown toffee color.

On Monday, Christie’s fell short of the $1 million high estimates in the sale of two Patek Philippe chronographs.

Auctioneers in Geneva will turn to jewelry over the next two days. The top lots in the coming sales include an oval 51.71-carat diamond ring that’s expected to sell for as much as $9 million at Sotheby’s and a 50.47-carat Harry Winston diamond ring that may fetch as much as $7 million at Christie’s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Thomas Mulier, John J. Edwards III

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