Overview

• Sotheby’s will offer the watch on November 9 in Geneva’s Important Watches sale, marking its first public auction appearance in 25 years.
• The auction house lists an estimate above 1 million Swiss francs, roughly $1.3 million, for the 9-carat gold piece.
• Gleitze wore the Oyster on her October 21, 1927 vindication attempt, with the watch fully immersed for 10 hours 24 minutes yet keeping accurate time.
• The caseback is engraved “Miss M. Gleitze. The Companion ‘Oyster’. Vindication Channel Swim. October 21st. 1927.”
• Sotheby’s describes the watch as a rare late-1926, pre-patent Oyster with a 27 mm octagonal case and wire lugs and calls the episode a turning point in Rolex’s alignment with adventurers.