The upcoming year-end Phillips auction, Racing Pulse, takes place on Saturday, December 12, 2020 in New York. It features several incredibly interesting watches.

I’ll come back to the other watches in a second post, as here I’d like to focus on five epic timepieces that Hollywood action star Sylvester Stallone has consigned.

Lot 47: Sylvester Stallone’s Panerai Luminor Slytech Daylight

Actor Sylvester Stallone has long been known in collector communities for his watch taste centering around beefy timepieces. He is best known for helping Panerai reach its fame before Richemont (then Vendôme) acquired the brand in 1997.

Stallone wore a Panerai Luminor in the Hollywood film Daylight, a watch that can justifiably be considered the most important Panerai wristwatch ever to come to auction. Here’s why.

Until it was re-launched in Florence in 1993, Officine Panerai was an Italian military brand. After that relaunch a rather curious thing happened: the very large, sporty, technical-looking watches hit a tipping point in more exclusive consumer circles – collector circles, really – swinging the prevalent watch fashion away from flat (often quartz) watches and kicking off a new trend in oversized timepieces.

Around 1995 this “newcomer” brand came to the attention of Stallone, who commissioned a model based on the Mare Nostrum, a first re-issue of the resuscitated Panerai, and dubbed it the Slytech Submersible. This Slytech lacked the patented Panerai crown-locking device that its siblings possess, lending it a more conventional, though still very solid and definitely large, appearance.

Sylvester Stallone’s Panerai Luminor Slytech Daylight (photo courtesy Phillips)

Coinciding with the filming of 1996’s Daylight, Stallone commissioned a second model with the locking device that came to be called the Slytech Daylight (a Luminor model). And Panerai became a product placement legend, propelling a new appreciation for these timepieces among a wider public, which was then nurtured and facilitated by the brand’s clever CEO, Angelo Bonati.

“I did a film called Daylight and I wanted to wear a watch that no one had ever seen. I strapped this on my wrist that day and didn’t take it off until the end of filming,” Phillips reports Stallone as saying. Here, he consigns the watch in the original shape as was worn for filming on the same rare sharkskin strap, as well as with original box, straps, brass screwdriver, and signed studio card.

Stallone’s Panerai Luminor Slytech Daylight is Phillips’ lot 47.

Quick Facts Panerai Luminor Slytech Daylight
Case: 44 mm, stainless steel
Movement: manual winding ETA Unitas Caliber 6497
Functions: hours, minutes
Year of manufacture: approx. 1993
Remarks: accompanied by signed letter, original box, additional straps, screwdriver, signed studio lobby card, and Daylight press kit from 1996
Estimate: $40,000-$80,000

Richard Mille and Sylvester Stallone (wearing the RM 032)

Four Sylvester Stallone Richard Mille watches

Stallone also put four exceptional Richard Mille watches in the auction, including one inspired by Stallone himself – the RM 25-01 Tourbillon Chronograph Adventure – and one worn by him in The Expendables 3, the RM 032 in titanium.

Lot 51: Richard Mille RM 25-01 Tourbillon Chronograph Adventure

The Richard Mille RM 25-01 Tourbillon Chronograph Adventure came about from a conversation Stallone had with Richard Mille. The two men were discussing what watch John Rambo might have worn. This character, certainly Stallone’s most iconic role after Rocky, was the title character in 1982’s Rambo, which became so popular that it turned into a series of five blockbusters across four decades.

Richard Mille RM 25-01 Tourbillon Chronograph Adventure

This watch is as beefy in every respect as John Rambo ever was. The action hero most modern action heroes have been modeled after, Rambo was as complicated as this watch (even if he was a man of very few words).

The idea behind the RM 25-01, Richard Mille’s most complicated timepiece to date, was to be a survival aid of sorts and thus includes a chronograph (to time missions, of course), a compass with a removable bezel and a lightweight carbon fiber cover, a spirit level (to ensure the accuracy of the compass), and a built-in water-resistant compartment above the crown – ostensibly to hold emergency water purification tablets.

Only 20 of the RM 25-01 were ever manufactured, and this example comes to auction with a handwritten letter by Stallone on his personal stationery. This Richard Mille RM 25-01 Tourbillon Chronograph Adventure is Phillips’ lot 51.

Quick Facts Richard Mille RM 25-01 Tourbillon Chronograph Adventure
Case: 50.85 x 23.65 mm, carbon TPT and titanium
Movement: manual winding Richard Mille Caliber RM25-01 with one-minute tourbillon, 72-hour power reserve, 21,600 vph/3 Hz frequency, base plate and bridges in grade 5 titanium, free-sprung variable inertia balance, fast-rotating barrel
Functions: hours, minutes; 24-hour display, chronograph, power reserve, torque and function indicators
Limitation: 20 pieces
Year of manufacture: 2018
Remarks: accompanied by signed letter
Estimate: $250,000-$500,000

Lot 50: Richard Mille RM 52-01 Tourbillon Skull TZP Nano-Ceramic

When the Richard Mille RM 052 – the Skull Tourbillon, as it is affectionately known – was introduced at the SIHH in 2011, it made waves. Tidal waves! Never before had an ultra-luxurious brand introduced a trendy skull design into such an expensive wristwatch.

Richard Mille RM 52-01 Tourbillon Skull TZP Nano-Ceramic (photo courtesy Phillips)

The brand then doubled down in 2013 and followed up with the RM 52-01 in the company’s innovative TZP ceramic, which comprises carbon nanotubes, and a pink gold skull base plate that really grabs the eye. Its value is also indisputable in the aftermarket as well, as in 2015 one of the original six came up at Christie’s Hong Kong, where it sold for HKD 3,460,000 ($448,541).

Stallone has been frequently photographed wearing this watch, which bears the number 13. This Richard Mille RM 52-01 Tourbillon Skull TZP Nano-Ceramic is Phillips’ lot 50.

Quick Facts Richard Mille RM 52-01 Tourbillon Skull TZP Nano-Ceramic
Case: 42.7 x 50 x 15.95 mm, TZP ceramic and titanium
Movement: manually wound titanium and pink gold caliber with one-minute tourbillon in skull-shaped bridges
Functions: hours, minutes
Limitation: 30 pieces in this configuration
Year of manufacture: ca. 2013
Remarks: accompanied by signed note
Estimate: $350,000-$700,000

Lot 48: Richard Mille RM 59-01 Yohan Blake Tourbillon

Richard Mille’s collaborations with various athletes over the years are particularly interesting because they were conceived to not only look good – or at least interesting – but to also take a real beating. And that in a watch costing half a million or more!

This RM 59-01 dedicated to Jamaican Olympic 100-meter sprinter Yohan Blake was one of the first outside of the racing field, and like the other dedicated Richard Mille sports watches, it contains revolutionary materials for the watch industry. Blake became an official Richard Mille ambassador in 2012.

Richard Mille RM 59-01 Yohan Blake Tourbillon

Its asymmetrical case is made of a translucent composite injected with carbon nanotubes, resulting in an unusual shade of green somewhat resembling Paleolithic amber. The use of anticorodal PB109 aluminum (an alloy comprising aluminum, magnesium, silicon, and lead) makes the watch – which includes a tourbillon – very light and shock-resistant.

The dynamic, visible bridges, again evoking something prehistoric, were designed to resemble the claws of “the Beast,” Blake’s nickname. The coloring pays homage to Blake’s island home.

Another one of the 50 in the edition to go up for auction in 2015, this time at Sotheby’s New York, sold on the secondary market for an amazing $478,000.

This Richard Mille RM 59-01 Yohan Blake Tourbillon is number 11, and is Phillips’ lot 48.

Quick Facts Richard Mille RM 59-01 Yohan Blake Tourbillon
Case: 42.7 x 50.24 x 15.84 mm, anticorodal PB109 aluminum
Movement: manually wound titanium caliber with one-minute tourbillon, 48-hour power reserve, 21,600 vph/3 Hz frequency, free-sprung variable-inertia balance, titanium base plate, anticorodal PB109 aluminum bridges, fast-rotating barrel
Functions: hours, minutes
Limitation: 50 pieces
Year of manufacture: ca. 2013
Remarks: accompanied by signed note
Estimate: $300,000-$600,000

Lot 49: Richard Mille RM 032 in titanium

Introduced in 2011, at 50 x 17.8 mm the Richard Mille diver’s watch is one laaaarge timepiece, but this is the style of watch that Sly seems to prefer. And it was certainly extremely noticeable on his wrist – if you managed to watch 2014’s The Expendables 3, it would have been nearly impossible to miss.

Richard Mille RM 032 in titanium (photo courtesy Phillips)

Aside from that, the RM 032 can certainly take anything that anyone can dish out. It might attract a lot of attention, though.

This Richard Mille RM 032 in titanium is Phillips’ lot 49.

Quick Facts Richard Mille RM 032 in titanium
Case: 50 x 17.8 mm, titanium; 300 m water resistance, conforming to ISO 6425 diver’s norm, locking crown
Movement: automatic in-house Caliber RMAC2, 50-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph/4 Hz frequency, free-sprung variable-inertia balance, fast-rotating barrel, rotor with variable geometry
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds; flyback chronograph with countdown function, annual calendar with large date
Year of manufacture: 2014
Remarks: accompanied by signed note and an additional Richard Mille strap
Estimate: $60,000-$120,000

Time Counts

The auction will also feature a special, charitable section entitled “Time Counts,” which consists of 12 lots donated by famous personalities. All proceeds from this section go to benefit the One Drop and Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundations.

Twelve lots – 11 watches and one experience – were generously donated by celebrated personalities including One Drop’s founder, Guy Laliberté, Prince Albert II of Monaco, U2’s lead singer Bono, former Formula One racing champions Sir Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard, and Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary. In support of the two foundations’ missions, Phillips will donate the net proceeds from the buyers’ premiums to benefit these foundations. More on this as well in my next post on this auction.

For more information, please visit www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY080120.

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