Our 11 Favorite Watches Coming to the Biggest Auctions of the Year

From a one-of-one Rolex to a multimillion-dollar Patek Philippe, these are our favorite pieces coming up for sale.Courtesy of Phillips, Sotheby's; GQWant more insider watch coverage? Get Box + Papers, GQ's newsletter devoted to the watch world, sent to your inbox every Friday. Sign up here to get it free.This is the biggest weekend of the year for vintage watches. It’s the year-end watch auctions in Geneva, where many prestigious houses bring their very best pieces to market. And it’s never been a more enthralling time to keep a close eye on what happens in Geneva over the next few days. In the first half of the year, the number of million-dollar watches nearly eclipsed the total for the entirety of 2025. A couple of the pieces listed below, including a unique Rolex and a rare Patek Philippe in stainless steel, have estimates above a million bucks.Writer Oren Hartov and I pored over hundreds of lots to bring you our 11 favorite watches plus one bonus selection. See them all below.Rolex ref. 3830 Anti-Magnetique "Verga" (Estimate: In excess of $1,210,000)You know a banger is coming up for sale when the house behind it doesn’t even bother capping its price range. Auction estimates are routinely and famously low to encourage bidders, and this watch’s starting point is still $1.2 million. Why? Well, have you ever seen a Rolex like this before? Before Rolex defined the look of modern watches with pieces like the Submariner, it operated similarly to many other manufacturers in Switzerland, willing to make one-off pieces and experiment frequently with its design.This square beauty from the early 1940s is “most probably unique,” as Phillips auction house writes in its essay on the piece. This exact piece last hit the auction block in 2004, and no other example has come up for public sale since. It’s crazy to see how much this watch’s case shape resembles Heuer’s similarly blocky Monaco, which wouldn’t be released for another 25-plus years. Unfortunately, as cool as this watch is, it does not come with onyx prayer beads. —Cam WolfPatek Philippe ref. 1436 (High estimate: $4.8 million)There’s Patek, then there’s complicated Patek, then there’s stainless steel complicated Patek, then there’s stainless steel complicated Patek made in just a handful of examples, then there’s stainless steel complicated Patek made in just a handful of examples in insane condition. This watch checks all those boxes. A reference 1436, it’s a split-seconds (rattrapante) chronograph, meaning it can time successive intervals of a race or event. One of just two stainless steel examples known to the market, it has an estimate of $2.4-$4.8M, a testament to its rarity and importance. —Oren HartovA. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 (High estimate: roughly $365,800)Yet another rare watch executed in stainless steel, this fabulous Lange 1 boasts a gorgeous two-tone dial in blue, with darker subdials contrasting against a cobalt-colored main dial. Dating to 1999 and first sold by the German retailer Oeding-Erdel, it’s one of approximately 30 pieces made in the most utilitarian of metals. Originally fitted with a more standard silvered dial, it received its current navy-blue dial as a replacement and is one of just two stainless steel Lange 1s known in this particular configuration. —OHUrban Jürgensen ref. 2 (High estimate: roughly $121,940)Renewed interest in Urban Jürgensen stemming from its recent relaunch under the directorship of Kari Voutilainen, who has since left the CEO position but remains on the company’s board, has seen watches such as this early-’90s ref. 2 garner more attention. A lovely perpetual calendar-moonphase, it’s housed in a classically inspired 37.7mm yellow gold case with cornes-de-vache-style lugs, a stepped bezel, and an incredible dial with the brand’s signature observatory-style hands. Someone tell Timothée Chalamet. —OHChopard L.U.C. Lunar One ref. 171927 (High estimate: $36,600)Chopard has a hard-earned reputation for putting out some of the most finely made watches in Switzerland. It’s not just the nerds who are familiar with its work anymore, either. If we (the nerds, obviously) were sending a watch in a bottle to help share that message far and wide, this Lunar One, which looks like something out of Superman’s icy Fortress of Solitude, wouldn’t be a bad choice. This is Chopard’s first watch to combine a perpetual calendar and a moonphase, which is like shaving truffles on caviar. I love that the Roman numerals at 4 and 8 o’clock look like columns nearly buckling under the weight of the center of the dial. This watch also comes with several fun add-ons, like onyx prayer beads plus a ring and a pen set with diamonds. —Cam WolfRolex ref. 3525 ‘Bariletto’ (High estimate: $609,000)While many younger collectors are obsessed with the Cosmograph Daytona, true “Crown” heads know that other pre-Daytona chronographs sometimes present an even more compelling proposition. This ref. 3525 ‘’Bariletto,’ dating to the 1940s, is not only the first Oyster-cased Rolex chronograph, but it’s also the only known stainless-steel example carrying the signature on the dial of Proud’s, a Rolex retailer based in Sydney. Manually wound, paired to a handsome beads-of-rice bracelet, and measuring a compact 36mm, it comes from the collection of important Italian collector Pucci Papaleo. —OHPatek Philippe ref. 2509 ‘School Watch’ (High estimate: $30,400)While this stainless steel Patek may look like a normal ref. 2509—a beautiful hand-wound dress watch from the midcentury—it’s actually a “school watch” modified by a watchmaking student at the Geneva Watchmaking School. Dating to the 1960s, it’s housed in a 35mm stainless steel case and features a lovely dial with the ‘Ecole d’Horlogerie Geneve’ signature instead of Patek Philippe’s. Open it up, and the hand-wound movement is signed by Norbert Henry, the watchmaking student who assembled and finished it. While it may not attract the attention of more typical Patek collectors, its under-the-radar qualities make it a potential sleeper hit. —OHVacheron Constantin ref. 4072 (High estimate: roughly $48,777)It’s tough to argue with the sheer beauty of Vacheron’s mid-20th-century output, much of which is vastly underappreciated compared to comparable pieces from the likes of Patek Philippe. This splendid yellow gold ref. 4072 with a two-tone multi-scale dial dates to the late 1940s—one of my favorite eras of watch design. Powered by the hand-wound cal. V 492 movement and featuring a lovely set of long, contoured lugs, its dial is in fantastic condition, with applied dart and Roman indices, sharp printing, a crisp signature, and legible tachymeter and telemeter scales. It will surely find its way onto the wrist of a collector with excellent taste. —OHUniversal Geneve pink-gold watch with cloisonné enamel dial (High estimate: roughly $36,600)This watch’s dial depicts Saint George, who, according to legend, slew a dragon while on horseback. This is a perfect use for the rich, deep colors you get from enamel. The flames licking at Saint George are beautiful shades of orange and red. He triumphantly lifts his spear as his steed rears its front legs. It’s very cool how much story you can get from this little 35mm timepiece. —CWF.P. Journe large stainless steel wall clock (High estimate: roughly $73,200)Watch collectors might pony up a few thousand for one of independent watchmaker F.P. Journe’s used tissues at this point. However, they’ll have to settle for a host of accessories coming to auction instead this weekend. The maker is so in-demand that, in addition to his timepieces, houses are selling his empty watch boxes and a set of toys that resemble him. This lot is in the middle of those two extremes: a wall clock made to resemble Journe’s Octa Réserve de Marche. Although I’m not gonna lie, flipping this over and seeing the compartment where you stuff in the batteries is a bit of a buzzkill. —CWLongines Lindbergh Hour Angle (High estimate: $2,500)They used to make everything look more elegant. This original Longines design was developed in 1931 with famous aviator Charles Lindbergh. It is technically a pilot’s watch, but its elegant, icy-blue dial and Roman numerals would make it the fanciest model on many red carpets in 2026. This is a model from the ‘80s inspired by that original design, and it comes on an absolutely righteous beads-of-rice bracelet. Someone is going to get this guy for around $2,500 if the estimate is correct! —CWBonus: Rolex GMT-Master poster (High estimate: $4,900)In Rolex world, even the advertisements sell for thousands of dollars. It’s hard to blame people when we’re talking about a rare poster of a GMT-Master wearing a snow-dusted Rolex beanie. Awwww. (Relatedly, imagine if Rolex sold that beanie!? Oh, boy.) —CWOren Hartov is a GQ contributor covering all things horological. He’s written extensively about celebrity watch culture, waxed poetic about the GMT complication, and railed against case sizes larger than 40mm. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music and a military veteran, he can be found playing the guitar, ... Read MoreCam Wolf is GQ’s Watch Editor. He joined the magazine in 2017 after working at Racked (RIP) as the site’s (first!) (and only!) Menswear Editor and Complex in the role of Style News Editor. Shortly into his GQ tenure, he immersed himself in the world of watches and quickly fell ... 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