Rolex's Four Seasons Daytonas raise £37.3 million for charity at Phillips in London
Four one-of-a-kind Rolex Cosmograph Daytonas, one for each season, have raised £37.3 million for charity at Phillips in London — a total the auction house described as a record for a single consignment at a charity watch auction.
A first for Rolex at auction
The sale was held on the evening of Monday 28 September 2026 at a gala dinner in London, conducted by Aurel Bacs for Phillips. Hodinkee reported that Phillips billed it as Rolex's first charity auction — a departure for a marque whose watches normally reach the saleroom through private owners rather than from the manufacturer itself. The collection had been announced in early September 2026, first reported by SJX on 3 September, and no pre-sale estimates were published.
The four watches went under the hammer as separate lots. The hammer prices, as listed by SJX:
- Summer — 18 ct Everose gold with a turquoise dial — £10.3 million
- Autumn — 18 ct yellow gold with a mookaite dial — £10.2 million
- Winter — 950 platinum with a blue opal dial — £10.0 million
- Spring — 18 ct white gold with a chrysoprase dial — £6.8 million
The total of £37,300,000 is roughly US$49.4 million, or CHF 41.2 million. SJX set the result against the steel Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime that achieved CHF 31 million at Only Watch in 2019, with the qualification that Rolex's figure covers four watches against the Patek's one. Three of the four Rolexes landed within half a million pounds of one another, which says something about how evenly the bidding ran.
What Rolex built
Each watch is a 40 mm Cosmograph Daytona on Rolex's current calibre 4131 automatic chronograph, with a sapphire crystal, water resistance to 100 metres and a matching Oyster bracelet. What sets the quartet apart is the finishing: precious-metal cases, natural stone dials and gem-set bezels, plus 54 brilliant-cut diamonds across the lugs and crown guards of every piece, according to the specification published for the sale.
- Spring, ref. 126599 SAVL — white gold, green chrysoprase dial, a bezel set with trapeze-cut purple sapphires and lepidolite counters.
- Summer, ref. 126595 SARO — Everose gold, turquoise dial, pink sapphire bezel and ruby counters.
- Autumn, ref. 126598 TML — yellow gold, mookaite dial, green tourmaline bezel and chrysoprase counters.
- Winter, ref. 126596 SABV — platinum, blue opal dial, a bezel graded from blue to fuchsia sapphire and lapis lazuli counters.
All proceeds go to the Roger Federer Foundation and to Re:wild, the environmental organisation backed by Leonardo DiCaprio. The watches were sold once, for charity, and will not return to the market as new stock.
Benchmarks at this level usually attach to a single storied watch: Paul Newman's own Daytona holds the headline price for the model at $17.75 million, set at Phillips in 2017, and the Tiffany blue-dial Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 fetched $6.5 million in December 2021, as Hodinkee set out in its coverage. A £37.3 million quartet sold by the manufacturer is a different order of event, and it lands in a year that has already given Rolex the centenary of the Oyster case and a surprise September launch in the Perpetual Padellone.
What it means if you are buying or selling
For anyone holding a standard Daytona — steel, gold or gem-set — the direct effect on value is limited, because a one-off charity piece does not reprice the range. What it does is keep attention on the model family, and on the more collectable corners of it such as precious-metal and stone-set references, which is where interest and liquidity tend to follow. For sellers, that is a reason to know what a specific watch is worth before the market decides; for buyers, it is a reminder that auction specials trade on their own uniqueness and provenance, not on the price of the watch you can actually buy from a dealer.
The practical step is the same on both sides: value the watch in front of you on its reference, condition, completeness and history, rather than on the mood of an auction room. Our valuations are free and take minutes.
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Sources
- Watches by SJX — Rolex Daytona “Four Seasons” Set Shatters Auction Record (29 September 2026) — watchesbysjx.com/2026/09/rolex-daytona-four-seasons-auction-record.html
- Hodinkee — The Rolex Four Seasons Daytona Collection Sells For A Combined $49.4M (28 September 2026) — www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-rolex-four-seasons-daytona-collection-sells-for-a-combined-dollar494m
- Hypebeast — Rolex to Auction Four Unique Gem-Set Cosmograph Daytonas Inspired by the Seasons — hypebeast.com/2026/9/rolex-auction-four-unique-gem-set-cosmograph-daytonas-inspired-by-the-seasons-phillips-london
- WatchesOff5th — Rolex Four Seasons Sale: $49.4M Daytona Auction Results — watchesoff5th.com/blogs/news/rolex-four-seasons-daytona-charity-auction
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