Michael Caine’s record-breaking London auction: ahead of 89th birthday, the British actor’s 18k gold Rolex Oysterquartz went for an eye-watering US$170,000 at Bonham’s misty-eyed memorabilia sell-off
Legendary British actor Sir Michael Caine set an auction record on March 2, when he sold items gathered across his career including luxury watches, artwork, his desk and his director’s chair.
The star of the lot was his 18k gold Rolex Oysterquartz Day-Date, which climbed from an initial asking price of £8,000-12,000 (US$10,800-16,300) to £125,250 (US$170,000) – a record price at auction for that model. When Caine bought it in 1979, it would have cost around US$1,300-2,700, and the steel version of the same model, around US$1,000 back then.
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Caine, who was knighted in 2000 and turns 89 on March 14, wore the timepiece – his third Rolex – in films such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), in which he plays a suave con man trying to dupe an heiress out of her fortune.
“It’s going to be quite a wrench to part with so many treasured parts of my life and career, but it’s the right time to be moving on,” Caine said before the sale, which took place at Bonhams in London. “I hope these mementoes will give their new owners as much pleasure as they have given us.”
Inside the Swiss watch tie-in with Robert Pattinson’s The Batman
Also sold at the auction were:
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a Patek Philippe La Flamme, from around 1990, which belonged to Caine’s wife Lady Shakira Caine, which sold for £19,000 (US$25,800), nearly three times its estimate
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a Breitling Navitimer from around 1990, which sold for nearly £11,000 (US$14,900) – the watch worn by Caine in 2008 when he pressed his hand and footprints into the Forecourt of the Stars outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood
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a Traser H3 Black Storm Pro, sold for £4,080 (US$5,500), and worn by Caine at the 2005 London premiere for Batman Begins in which he played Alfred, Batman’s butler
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a large Italian cinema poster for Zulu, Caine’s breakthrough film, in 1964, which sold for £14,625 (US$19,850)
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a director’s chair used by Caine during the 1971 movie Get Carter, which sold for £16,375 (US$22,230)
- Caine wore the Rolex in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, one of 130 Hollywood films he has starred in, and also sold a Breitling watch and Lady Shakira Caine’s Patek Philippe
- Also on sale? A vintage Zulu poster, Caine’s Get Carter director’s chair and the Breitling Navitimer worn when leaving his handprint outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood