Press release -
Valuable Wristwatches up for Auction!
At Bruun Rasmussen’s anniversary auction, the gentlemen will certainly have something to put on their Christmas wish list! Two top models from Rolex, a Daytona Cosmograph and a Dato-Compax Chronograph, will be up for auction together with an Omega Speedmaster "Ultraman" and 60 other ticking wonders.
Rolex – from Race Car Drivers to Downhill Racers
The auction with wristwatches from the world’s most famous brands will take place at 6:30 pm on Thursday 29 November. The ultimate highlights are two models from Rolex. The first of them is a Daytona Cosmograph model that dates from the mid-1960s and originates from a time when Rolex was the official timekeeper at the famous Daytona Racecourse in Florida. The watch was therefore initially fitted with a tachymeter scale on the bezel and was developed specifically for the needs of the race car drivers. The watch has since become known as the "Paul Newman" because the legendary American actor was shown wearing it on the front page of an Italian magazine, which made the watch’s popularity skyrocket. Last time we sold a similar model, we beat the Danish auction record with a hammer price of DKK 1.7 million. The auction's second top model from Rolex is a Dato-Compax Chronograph from 1950, and with this watch, it was the French downhill racer Jean Claude Killy who ended up lending his name to the model. The estimate on both watches has been set at DKK 1 million.
Japanese Sci-fi and Omega Speedmaster ”Ultraman”
Many wristwatch connoisseurs will, without doubt, become enamoured with the offered original Omega Speedmaster “Ultraman” from 1968.
”Not only is it an unusual wristwatch – it also has a funny consignment story. The seller walked into our offices in Copenhagen and quite literally dropped a plastic bag on the table and said, “I don’t think this is worth seeing, but you may as well have a look. As you can image, we were left quite speechless when we saw what was inside the bag,” says Bruun Rasmussen’s wristwatch expert, Henrik Jørgensen.
The iconic Speedmaster really has come into its own, as one of the absolute stars when it comes to wristwatches. No other mechanical wristwatch has embraced social media to the same degree, especially with the launch of #SpeedyTuesday in 2017. The #SpeedyTuesday movement was started by the Dutch wristwatch blog Fratello Watches, where the blog’s founder, Robert-Jan Broer, started posting Speedy snaps every Tuesday on Facebook. A tradition that has been picked up by thousands of wristwatch fans.
The nickname “Ultraman” is a reference to a Japanese Kaiju sci-fi series from the 1970s. The story focuses on a superhero who battles giant monsters, so-called Kaijus, with the aid of a military-style Monster Attack Team. In the series’ fourth instalment, “The Return of Ultraman”, the heroic monster fighters were all outfitted with the Omega Speedmaster “Moonwatch” 1967. Collectors went mad for the reference, not least because the watch’s seconds hand matched the orange jumpsuits worn by the team.
Auction: Thursday 29 November 6:30 pm at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen
Preview: 21-26 November at the same address
Topics
Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers is one of Scandinavia’s leading international auction houses, and one of Denmark’s oldest. It all started on 6 October 1948, when Arne Bruun Rasmussen conducted the first traditional auction in the saleroom at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen. Today, Jesper Bruun Rasmussen stands at the helm of the family-run business together with the third generation of the family, his son Frederik and daughter Alexa, and the company’s CEO Jakob Dupont.
In 2004, the first online auction was launched, and today the auction house has expanded to include departments in Copenhagen and Aarhus and representations in Sweden, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy, Thailand and the US. About 100,000 lots are put up for auction each year at the traditional auctions and daily online auctions. Here you can bid on everything from art, antiques, modern design and jewellery to books, coins, stamps, wine and weaponry.
