15 October 2026 · Luxury Exchange Hub · Auctions, Market, Voutilainen, Rolex, F.P. Journe

An F.P. Journe wristwatch with day, date and month displays on a black leather strap — F.P. Journe was among the strongest results at October's auction sales
Photo: Rama / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr · source

October's first full week of watch auctions closed on 9 October, with a stainless steel Voutilainen leading the results at $1,016,000 in New York and a fresh-to-market Rolex Daytona 'Paul Newman' making €448,000 in Paris.

Four sales ran during the week: Phillips' New York Sessions Fall 2026, an online sale of 88 lots that closed on Friday 9 October; Sotheby's Paris Fine Watches, a timed online sale that finished the same day; Christie's Watches Online: The Hong Kong Edit, which closed on Wednesday 7 October; and Bonhams' New York Watches sale, which ended at noon on Thursday 8 October. Prices below are the houses' published results and include buyer's premium.

A steel Voutilainen at $1,016,000

The week's top price came at Phillips for lot 22, a Voutilainen 28Sport in stainless steel numbered five of eight. The model was released in 2020 in a run of eight titanium and eight steel pieces, and the estimate was $120,000–240,000. The 39 mm watch has an onyx dial with a blue guilloché hour track and carries Voutilainen's hand-wound Vingt-8 calibre, which was discontinued in December 2025. Phillips describes this example as possibly one of only two made in this configuration; it was consigned by its original owner with its October 2021 certificate. All 88 lots found buyers.

Independent watchmaking held the rest of the New York top tier. Two F.P. Journe pieces — an Octa Lune in pink gold with a salmon dial and a platinum lineSport Centigraphe Souverain — sold for $304,800 each, and a platinum Octa Quantième Perpétuel made $241,300. A Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos Marqueterie clock decorated after Gustav Klimt took $152,400, and a Rolex Daytona 'Platona' ref. 116506 brought $101,600.

Paris and Hong Kong: fresh-to-market pieces lead

At Sotheby's Paris, a Rolex Daytona 'Paul Newman' ref. 6241 from circa 1968 drew 15 bids and sold for €448,000 — about $500,700 — against an estimate of €120,000–260,000, the week's strongest result in Europe. Sotheby's describes the watch as recently discovered in a private European collection, where it had been kept for decades; it sold on its Oyster bracelet with box, papers and a guarantee card. A platinum F.P. Journe Centigraphe Souverain from circa 2014 followed at €307,200, a white gold Rolex GMT-Master II with a sapphire- and diamond-set bezel made €153,600, and a Sea-Dweller 'Comex' ref. 1665 from circa 1979 sold for €102,400.

Christie's Hong Kong sale totalled HK$23,125,632 — about $2.95 million — and produced the week's steepest multiples. An Eska in pink gold with a cloisonné enamel dial, offered without box or papers, drew 37 bids and made HK$1,216,000, about $154,900. A Vacheron Constantin perpetual calendar chronograph in platinum from circa 2002 sold for HK$1,024,000, more than 25 times its low estimate, after 44 bids. At Bonhams in New York, the top lot was an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 'Mini Frosted Gold' at $76,700, and two 2026 H. Moser & Cie. pieces went unsold.

The pattern across the week was that the steepest prices went to watches that cannot simply be ordered again — an eight-piece edition, an enamel dial from a little-known maker, a 24-year-old platinum perpetual calendar, a Daytona that had spent decades out of sight — while big-estimate modern Patek Philippes in Hong Kong sold within their ranges on a handful of bids.

“The money is still in the room. It is following the story, and on Friday morning it followed a steel Voutilainen past $1 million.” — Haute Time

What it means for buyers and sellers

For sellers, the week reinforced what the past year of auctions has shown: scarcity, condition and completeness move prices more than age alone. Fresh-to-market pieces with their full accessories, like the Voutilainen and the 'Paul Newman' Daytona, consistently ran past their estimates, while two recent, readily available Mosers found no bids at all. For buyers, the results are useful reference points: a steel independent at $1,016,000 and a 'Paul Newman' Daytona at €448,000 will be quoted in the pre-owned market for months.

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