This Rolex Set a Record for a Watch Sold at an Online Auction

London—A rare Rolex Daytona just set a record price for a watch sold in an online auction.

From July 24 to 31, Sotheby’s put an 18-karat gold Daytona JPS Ref. 6264 up on the block in a single-lot online auction, where it garnered £1.2 million ($1.5 million) to break the record.

The Daytona JPS Ref. 6264 was produced in very small numbers between the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Sotheby’s said, with only 10 created in 18-karat gold.

This is the first time this particular watch has been offered at auction.

The 1969 “John Player Special,” named after the legendary 1970s Formula 1 livery because of its black and gold “Paul Newman” dial, received 17 bids from five bidders over the course of the week-long online sale, driving the final price well above its pre-sale estimate of £320,000 to £650,000 (about $400,000 to $800,000).

The Daytona JPS Ref. 6264 also set an auction record for a wristwatch sold in the U.K., a record for a Daytona JPS and one of the highest prices ever paid for a Daytona, according to Sotheby’s.

“The record-breaking sale of this Daytona JPS summarizes in many ways the takeaways of this pivotal season: the eagerness of collectors to embrace new ways to transact with us, their resolute confidence to buy and sell high-value lots online and, of course, the unabated appetite for freshness, quality and rarity,” said Sam Hines, worldwide head of Sotheby’s Watches.

Sotheby’s broke several of its own records for watch auction results this spring.

This included the top lot of the “Masterworks of Time” sale—the Dent “Ultra Complication,” one of the most sophisticated watches ever made, which nearly doubled its pre-sale estimate when it sold for CHF 800,000 ($832,240) to set a record for a pocket watch sold in an online auction.

And a Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 16516 platinum chronograph wristwatch with a lapis lazuli hardstone dial sold for HK$25.4 million ($3.3 million) in Sotheby’s Hong Kong “Important Watches” live auction on July 11, setting a record for an automatic Daytona.

The most expensive watch ever sold at auction remains the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010, which went for $31 million last fall.