CHF 5,066,000 (HK$39.4M)

Before Paul Newman’s Paul Newman stole all the year’s auction news thunder, one of the most exciting sales was the Rolex Ref. 6062 “Bao Dai”, which sold for over 5 million Swiss francs to an anonymous buyer at the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: Five, in May. At the moment the hammer fell, it was the most expensive Rolex ever sold. This triple calendar Rolex was sold to Bao Dai, the last emperor of the Nguyen dynasty of Vietnam, in 1954 while he was working in Geneva, and had only exchanged hands once previously. It has a distinctive gold case, diamond markers and a black dial, and at the time of its manufacture was the most expensive and rarest of all the

Rolex models in production – only three of its kind are known to have existed. The “Bao

Dai” is the only one of them with diamond markers on the even hours, making it a unique piece.