The Geneva watch auctions are coming up this weekend, and if you don’t have a ticket to Switzerland, don’t fret: You can bid from the comfort of your home (i.e., sans pants). The weekend is one of the biggest events for watch enthusiasts out there, and anyone with a predilection for old timepieces should get excited. We sure are — the watch-loving members of our staff have been perusing the online listings the last couple days, looking for our favorites of the bunch. As it turns out we all have a thing for old Rolexes, but with given Rolex’s long history and tendency to experiment with designs, each one has their own unique look.
Rolex Milgauss With ‘Exclamation Point’
This paragraph could be entirely about how much I adore the Milgauss’s lightning bolt seconds hand, but I also love that the original Milgauss had the same look of the Submariner with a 38mm case and rotating bezel. Add the honeycomb black dial and the gold/orange accents, and you have a stunning timepiece. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that this is a spectacularly rare Rolex because of the addition of the “exclamation point,” the small luminous circle beneath the six o’clock marker.
— Andrew Connor
Solid Gold Rolex Daytona for the Sultanate of Oman
Things that make for a great watch: a Yellow Gold Case/Yellow Dial combo and a dial stamped with something for a Sultanate. The Sultan of Oman loved giving out stamped Rolexes, but usually, they were slightly more utilitarian and slightly less flashy (case in point: this beautiful black-dialed steel Daytona) but there’s something so excellent about a little flourish of red Arabic on what is basically an articulating gold bar with some gears inside it. — Henry Phillips
