Published on November 26, 2024
Allen Farmelo
While in Dubai for the launch of the most lavish Rolex Certified Pre-Owned boutique in the world—operated by the illustrious Seddiqi family, who are celebrating 75 years in business—we also spotted a large number of rather amazing Rolexes out and about town. Only in Dubai do you step onto the patio of a mall restaurant and find a gentleman sipping cappuccino while wearing a solid yellow-gold Rainbow Daytona. Only in Dubai do you meet people wearing two incredible vintage models, one per wrist. Only in Dubai…indeed.
As our watch editor Paige Reddinger wrote earlier this year, Dubai is becoming a hub for watch collectors, and it’s doing it faster than just about any other city. It seems Dubai is doing almost everything faster than any other city on Earth, really, so it only makes sense that the Rolex spotting would be off the chain. And it was just totally unleashed, as the photos we took will make obvious.
Some of the watches we spotted were at a gala dinner held in the Dubai Opera House for the launch of the Seddiqi Rolex Certified Pre-Owned boutique. If you’ve not looked at the watches on offer there, you can see them here. What we didn’t expect to see was a gala hall filled with people wearing Rolexes that would rival those on offer from that amazing CPO boutique.
Many of the Rolexes we saw out and about, like that Rainbow Daytona at the mall—still can’t quite compute that sighting. Many off-catalog stunners appeared before us. Some of the folks were happy to have their pictures taken, while others were more bashful and/or private, preferring that only their watch be photographed. Either way, the watch lovers of Dubai were some of the most gracious and affable folks we’ve ever seen rocking Rollies of this caliber. Heaps of bling and, refreshingly, zero attitude.
Here’s a whopping 55 Rolexes we saw. Only in Dubai…!
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Burgundy Daytona With Arabic Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This gentleman was not only handsome and dressed to the nines, but so was his wife (photograph below). This watch is one you’ll just about never see in person. The pairing with that burgundy smoking jacket was perfection. We call that “dressing the watch.”
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Yellow-Gold Day-Date With Stone Dial and Diamond-Studded Roman Numerals
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo It’s hard to argue with the style of this Day-Date, which is rare and very much of-the-moment as stone dials make their big comeback this year.
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Green Daytona in White Gold With Diamond Bezel
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo You’ll see this reference around here and there with a standard Daytona bezel with tachymeter scale, but to see one with a baguette bezel is quite the rare sighting. Great smile, and this gentleman’s enthusiasm for watches was infectuous.
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Stainless-Steel Oyster Perpetual With Red Stella Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo “Dressing the watch” is definitely a thing in Dubai, as evidenced by this incredible pairing of a lovely red Stella dial OP with a killer red dress. When we pointed out that her lipstick was the perfect shade of red, this woman replied, “Thank you so much for noticing that!”
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White-Gold Day-Date With Arabic Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This gengleman runs one of Dubai’s most active watch clubs, and his watch shows you the caliber of timepiece that shows up seemingly everywhere in Dubai: rare, beautiful, and worn with elan.
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Yellow-Gold Day-Date With Diamonds and Emeralds
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo It became clear that when a sleeve hung below a certain altitude, it was worth asking if there was a Rolex underneath. And so we asked this woman if she might be wearing an interesting watch. Well, yeah! Rare and full of sparkle (but we did see two of these, remarkably. Only in Dubai).
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Yellow-Gold Daytona With Mother-of-Pearl Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Women in Dubai were often wearing larger watches, like this Daytona. Hard to come by, this model is a stunning example of how far Rolex has taken its signature chronograph in the past couple of decades.
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Yellow-Gold Rainbow Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Hanging out at the Dubai Mall, this gentleman was having coffee with a friend . . . and wearing his Rainbow Daytona with diamond-studded lugs. Brilliant—in all senses of the word.
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Yellow-Gold GMT-Master II With Jeweled Bezel
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo We can’t claim to make out exactly which three time zones this handsome man was tracking with his gold GMT-Master II, but, really, is that even the point of this watch? Gorgeous sapphries and rubies make this a very special “Pepsi” GMT. Check those diamond-studded lugs, too.
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Vintage Oyster Perpetual and Pre-Daytona Chronograph
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Don’t let choice hold you back. Just double up! This was one of the tastiest selections we saw in Dubai, and that pre-Daytona chronograph was one of the best preserved examples we’ve seen in person. This is Mr. Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, the Chariman of Seddiqi Holding, and obviously a lover of vintage Rolex.
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Cellini with Rare Marking
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Among the collectors gathered at the Dubai Opera House was a gaggle of gentlemen discussing a possible acquisition, a very rare rectangular Cellini with a dial made for the Middle Eastern market sometime, we assume, in the 1970s. The world of Rolex in the Middle East is truly unlike it is here on our side of the globe. Wonderful.
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Double Red Sea-Dweller
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo We’ve seen our share of Double Red Sea-Dwellers, but these rare birds don’t usually have such unruffled feathers. This perfect, unpolished example includes box and papers, of course, which were stashed at home. That flat “4” on the bezel has been known to make nerds like us swoon.
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French Day-Date in White Gold
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Bonjour! This mother-of-pearl dial Day-Date in white gold with a French weekday wheel and baguette-diamond markers brings the kind of rarity that could only be understated in Dubai.
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Two-Tone Submariner “Bluesy”
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Seems so obtainable within this ilk, but indeed this is one of those hard-to-get six-digit Rolex Subs that people clamor for stateside.
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Five-Digit Submariner “Kermit”
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo That this Frenchman, Brice Goulard of Monochrome Watches, is wearing a watch nicknamed after the world’s most famous frog seems entirely appropriate. Love the maxi-dial with the faded old-school aluminum bezel insert. No, not a flat-4 example, but then that would cost roughly double.
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Rainbow Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This one was on the wrist of a woman wearing, as you can see, a lovely green reminiscent of Rolex’s signature color. Our second Rainbow Daytona sighting. Only in Dubai…
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Diamond and Mother-of-Pearl Datejust
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo It was the pairing with the ring on her pointer finger that really cinched this outfit. But also the way her paisely fabric and alligator purse worked magic in this emsemble. Just stunning.
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Day-Date With Diamonds and Emeralds
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Yes, we saw one of these on another woman. It’s interesting to contemplate the rarity of one of these watches, but the rarity of seeing two nears incomprehensibility.
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Leopard-Print Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Didn’t Elton John just auction one of these for $8 million? Why, yes he did. Wasn’t sure we’d ever see one of these in person. This was on display at the Dubai Opera House, and it gathered quite a crowd around it. Yes, it’s available through the Seddiqi Rolex CPO program.
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Daytona With Sapphires and Diamonds
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo What is there to even say? This is utterly increidble to see anywhere. An off-catalog Daytona that will knock your socks off.
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Purple Daytona With Jewels
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Another exceptionally rare off-catalog Daytona.
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Yellow-Gold Day-Date With Onyx Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Black onyx and yellow gold come together on one of the most handsome Day-Dates ever to roll out of the Rollie factory.
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Rare Day-Dates and a Steel Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo We had a lovely chat with these three collectors, who were, of course, rocking some beautiful and rare Rolexes. Their enthusiasm for watches was palpable.
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Arabic Day-Date with Pale-Blue Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo The popularity of Arabic writing on Rolexes back in the USA is fascinating, but you’ll never see as many here as you will in Dubai. The white-gold case and bracelet offset that dial perfectly.
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Day-Date With Wave Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Rolex made these for a hot minute, and now they’re impossibhle to find.
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Steel Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo When a perfect Daytona isn’t the fanciest watch in the room, you know you’re among some elite watch collectors.
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Pre-Daytona Chronograph
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo The second pre-Daytona we saw in one night, making Dubai perhaps hotter than Italy for these midcentury masterpieces.
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Diamond-Encrusted Day-Date
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Just another diamond-encrusted Day-Date we saw while eating dinner. Nice Cartier bracelet, too. This woman wore it with a lovely Gucci top and oversized glasses. Nice look!
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Etched-Dial Datejust
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Rare and handsome, and the jubilee bracelet makes it sing.
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Steel Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Again, these Daytonas that are nearly impossible to get just keep coming in Dubai.
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Sky-Dweller With Green Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo There’s a Sky-Dweller you don’t see very often! Probably the best looking SD we’ve seen.
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Sky-Dweller With Black Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo You know, the green one is great, but then again there’s something to be said for a black-dial SD, too.
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Day-Date With Rainbow Sapphire Markers
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This was a wedding present from her husband, and it’s one of the most demure bejeweled Rolexes we’ve ever seen. This woman was positively glowing about it, and told us that she doesn’t wear it as often as she’d like. But she has other watches, as one does.
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Datejust With Green Roman Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This belongs to the kind husband who bought that rainbow Day-Date in the previous photo. The couple looks so lovely together wearing their Rollies.
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Two-Tone Datejust With Radial Blue Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Here’s a bit of neo-vintage perfection.
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Datejust in Yellow Gold With Exotic Mother-of-Pearl Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo An elusive Datejust, the likes of which we have never seen before. The bezel on this one suggesting a Turn-o-Graph base…but we don’t really know. Amazing.
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Yellow-Gold Day Date
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Perfect, presidential, and paired beautifully with a blacked-out outfit.
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GMT-Master II With Meteorite Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Extra points for those who can figure out who this stunning watch belongs to. Hint: the rings.
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Rolex Day-Date in Rose Gold With White Enamel Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This lovely piece was for sale at the world’s largest Rolex boutique in the Dubai Mall. You really have to see this place. Just go.
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Datejust With Diamond Makers and Bezel
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Another rarity on display at the Rolex boutique in the Dubai Mall.
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Submariner “Starbucks”
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo When the “Kermit” got a ceramic bezel, someone somewhere decided it was no longer a frog but a “Starbucks” model. Well, that’s fine and all, but what’s most impressive about the Starbucks is its timelessness—a modern classic.
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Two-Tone Datejust With Diamonds
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Demure and sophisticated, with just enough sparkle.
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Two-Tone Datejust With Green Dial and Roman Numerals
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo One of our favorite people in Dubai (who chose to remain anonymous) was rocking this stellar classic of the modern Rolex catalog out and about Dubai. She noted, “You don’t have to worry about wearing a Rolex in Dubai,” because the city is so safe. Try that in London or New York.
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Yellow-Gold Day-Date With Malachite Dial and Five-Digit GMT-Master II
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Double-wristing is a thing, and why not? We have two wrists, so…
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Submariners: a Kermit and a 16800
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo The Kermit stands out anywhere, but only those in the know will see that the 16800 is a “transitional” model from 1981 with perfect aging and a sharp case.
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Air-King Reference 126900
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo This is the current production Air-King, as evidenced by the “05” in the 1 o’clock position. If you want to know all about Air-Kings, read our collector’s guide.
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GMT-Master II Pepsi 126710BLRO
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Did Rolex discontinue this or not? We can hardly tell, so elusive is the Crown about such decisions. Regardless, this was reputed to be nearly impossible to achieve because the red and blue ceramic did not play nicely together. Or so we’ve heard.
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Two-Tone Daytona
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Another Daytona out in the wild looking fantastic.
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Yellow-Gold Day-Date 36 With Diamonds and Mother-of-Pearl Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Just about nothing on this watch is standard, except for, perhaps, the English date wheel. The Day-Date 36 is one of the most popular watches right now, but wild Day-Dates like this are harder to come by than you’d imagine.
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Day-Date 36 in White Gold With Mother-of-Pearl Dial and Diamonds
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo Perfection, really.
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Two-Tone Sky-Dweller With White Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo The two-tone Sky-Dwellers aren’t always available, and it’s easly to see why.
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GMT-Master II With Meteorite Dial
Image Credit: Allen Farmelo It’s not like you see these on diaplay anywhere in the USA or even in Europe, but if you go to the Dubai Mall, there it is, shimmering with a stone from outer space.
Authors
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Allen Farmelo
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