Lot 1 was a Rolex, and it did not sell. Steel Submariner Date, reference 126610LV, the green bezel and black dial the catalogue calls a Starbucks. First State Auctions estimated it at 19,500 to 20,500 Australian dollars. The sale closed on 25 October. The page still says unsold.
The catalogue around that watch was billed as the Lowndes family's jewellery, with Swiss watches and designer bags added in. It sat online from 18 to 25 October. 229 of the 450 lots sold, which leaves 221 still sitting there. A brand on the lot helped: 108 of the 184 lots carrying one sold, and 121 of the 266 without one. Rolex went the other way. Six of its sixteen watches sold, and the green Submariner was one of the ten that did not.
Hermès was nearly a split, eight sold and seven unsold. Lot 8 was one of the eight, a red Birkin 30, pre-owned, with an Entrupy certificate. The estimate was 15,000 to 18,000. The hammer was 15,250. I would call that a sale, and a quiet one. The house then adds 20 percent, another 3,050 Australian dollars, and an Australian bid already has GST in it. Export the bag and First State takes the GST off the hammer and keeps the premium. Hermès Still Sells Every Bag It Makes is about the bags the workshop is still producing. This one had a previous owner. That got it into the sale. The price was whatever someone would pay on the 25th.
Anyone in Singapore or Hong Kong had the week, and the export terms, and the Submariner was still there at the end. If you bought the green bezel so you could move it between cities, that is the whole question. Did the week produce a person? For this watch, it did not.
WatchCharts is that same week, widened out. It follows 300 watches from ten brands, weighted by what actually trades. On 28 October the index stood at 38,753, up 1.9 percent over six months and 7.9 percent over a year. Forbes, on 20 October, quoting a Morgan Stanley note that uses the same index, still had the level about 29 percent under the April 2022 peak. The market has been mending for half a year. It has not handed anyone their 2022 money back.
Rolex is more than half of the index, so the missed Submariner has company. WatchCharts said that in the third quarter Rolex made the smallest gain of its recovery, while the secondary market was holding a record supply of its watches. In September the Submariner line itself was down 1 percent, and the overall index was flat. The green bezel in Australia missed in a category that already has too many of itself for sale. I would ask what the last few of reference 126610LV actually fetched before I let a six-month chart talk me into anything.
"You can buy another Rolex, but you can't necessarily buy back the memories attached to your first one."
Tim Green, head of commercial at Subdial, to British GQ, 29 October 2026
Green was warning people who sell a watch they love in order to climb to a more expensive one. Fair warning, and a different watch from this one. Lot 1 was for sale with an estimate on it, and it finished unsold. The catalogue is what that looks like when the week ends and the stranger you were counting on has not appeared.
The certificate listed on the unsold Submariner is First State's own. Ask about the box, the papers, and the last service before you decide the file is complete. Then the only question the sale can really answer: if you would buy the green bezel only because you can sell it, this room already had a week to find that buyer.
