Good Evening Mr. President

The Rolex Day-Date, popularly known as the President, is getting its own day in the Sun. Auction house Phillips, new to the watch auction arena with their Phillips Watches division, is kicking things off with a bang. The Glamorous Day-Date is a Presidents-only auction, being held on the evening of May 9 in Geneva.

It seems like the Day-Date has been overshadowed in recent years by the popularity of sports models like the Daytona and the Submariner. And then there are the new releases stealing the limelight every year – the Batman and Pepsi GMT-Master II, the YachtMaster II, even the SkyDweller.

Sixty lots in several sub-categories will go under the hammer. And those sub-categories are most interesting. There’ll be Stellas – those unique lacquered dials in bright colors. Several watches with hard stone dials of quartz and crystal – and one in opal – will be sold.

There will be watches made for the Sultanate of Oman, watches with fade-to-black dials and geometric dials. And timepieces featuring dials with Arabic script applied markers. Watches from every decade since the inception of the Day-Date. The list goes on and on.

For those of you tracking the watches of Eric Clapton, Lot 48 is a rare, pink gold example of the species mounted on an Oyster bracelet, with a diamond dial and smooth bezel once owned by the great guitarist.

But my personal favorites are Lot 1 and Lot 60.

I can smell the Caribbean just looking at the photos.