Million-dollar expectations for Rolex with unique history

A watch with a fascinating origin story is expected to return millions of dollars when it appears at auction in November.

Mercedes Gleitze (1900-1981) was a professional swimmer, best known for being the first British woman to swim across the English Channel, a feat she accomplished on her eighth attempt in October 1927.

Gleitze successfully swam the channel in 15 hours and 15 minutes; however, she was accused of a hoax. Two weeks after the swim, she attempted what was known as the ‘vindication swim’. At the time, Rolex was developing the Oyster as a waterproof wristwatch, and Gleitze agreed to complete the swim with the new design.

The vindication swim took place on 21 October, and members of the press followed Gleitze on boats, while The Daily Mail chartered a plane to capture aerial photographs. The attempt was abandoned after 10 hours due to hazardous weather; however, it was widely accepted that the courage demonstrated by Gleitze during this swim convinced the public that her original record was authentic.

The association between Gleitze and her athletic feats would feature prominently in Rolex’s promotional campaigns. This Rolex Oyster is headed to auction at Sotheby’s in Geneva in November with a pre-sale estimate of £900,000 ($AUD1.84 million).

Sotheby's global chairman of watches, Sam Hines, described the relationship between Gleitze and Rolex as laying the “foundation for what would become a legacy of tool watches built for real-world performance".

"The Oyster was instrumental in the transition from pocket to wristwatches, and Mercedes Gleitze played an important role in this transition," Hines said.

In the same year as her English Channel swim, Gleitze also became the first person to swim the Straits of Gibraltar. A film about her life was released in 2024, Vindication Swim.