As the high gloss catalogues for the upcoming watch auctions are flying in, the hunting season for fake and made-up specimens is officially open again. And boy did we come across big game. At their ‘Exclusive Timepieces’ auction, which will take place on October 19 and 20, 2024, in the money laundering paradise of Monaco, ‘Big Boss’ Davide Parmegiani’s Monaco Legend Auctions sneaked in another two top lots that are nothing but a made-up Frankenstein watches, just like the ‘Lemon’ last season. This time it is a Rolex ‘Paul Newman’ Daytona ‘John Player Special’ or ‘JPS’, Ref. 6241 in 14k gold and John Goldberger’s ‘Unicorn’ Day-Date. In addition, they also planted a fake double-signed Rolex Daytona ‘Tiffany & Co.’, Ref. 6239. Since no serious collector would even touch a watch that was rightfully dragged through the mud on the international stage, the question remains, who is actually buying all this junk and for what purpose?

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Update October 28, 2024
As expected, Monaco Legend Auctions went ahead with the questionable lots discussed in this article. Lot 209, the totally made-up Rolex Daytona ‘John Player Special’ fetched € 1,027,000. Lot 148, the Rolex Daytona featuring a fake ‘Tiffany & Co.’ print went for € 71,500. Lot 110, John Goldberger’s ‘Frankenstein’ Day-Date in stainless steel achieved € 1,196,000. Judging by Davide Parmegiani’s actions, it appears they are trying to push a narrative that collectors have no problem with Frankenstein watches, or even fakes like the above mentioned Tiffany. It remains to be seen if these watches really sold or if the whole thing was just a well-orchestrated charade in support the new narrative. At least Lot 110 and 148 went to bidders who were on the phone with ‘kingpin’ Parmegiani. Whether real bidders were at the other end of the line is a different story.

Update October 30, 2024
I have now heard from several varying sources that a narrative is being pushed that I, along with a friend of mine, the long-established watch dealer Tom Bolt a.k.a. WatchGuru (IG: @_watchguru), have been trying to blackmail Davide Parmegiani into giving us a percentage of his auction house to come on board. Due to this now reverberating rumour, I now feel it is time to set the record straight. Obviously, Parmegiani is playing the victim. If he is being blackmailed, why would he continue to make himself a target by insisting on selling fake watches? From my experience, it is typical for Italian watch dealers to play the victim. The same happened in 2018 when I exposed an Italian counterfeiter ring specialized in vintage Panerai. This blackmail story is stuff for an article on its own, and believe me, with his 36 years in the business, Parmegiani’s closet is bursting with skeletons. Stay tuned.

Lot 209 – Rolex Daytona ‘JPS’, Ref. 6141, 2112898

As usual with high-end Frankenstein watches put together by watch dealers, they look striking at first. Think of the tropical Speedmaster, or John Goldberger’s ‘Unicorn’ Daytona. Yes, they look amazing until you realize they were assembled with mismatched parts from different periods, and in the case of Goldberger’s famous ‘Unicorn”, even with fake parts made in Bologna.

Auction link: Lot 209 – Rolex Daytona ‘JPS’, Ref. 6141, 2112898 (monacolegendauctions.com)

Old school dealers never cared for correctness. Why bother when a mesmerizing dial was all it took to fool people. For decades, they were the gatekeepers of knowledge, but that has drastically changed. Some will argue (dealers that is) if the dial is period with the case, that is good enough. Perhaps for regular watches that can be the case but for rare gems like a ‘John Player Special’? No sir, not in my book. If a watch was not born a ‘JPS’, it will never be a ‘JPS’. Think of a carburator BMW 3.0 CSL. Only 169 examples of these super lightweight cars were made in 1971. Sure, you can take a regular 3.0 CS and convert it into a CSL. It will look exactly the same but never be a real CSL, and no one in the vintage car community will ever accept it as a CSL.

Now that this is out the way, let us take a closer look at the details of Lot 209. It is no secret that I have compiled the most insane watch database in the world. More than 100,000 well-documented watch are forever recorded in it, plus of course all the different alterations some of the pieces went through. When I say insane, I mean it, and this particular case will demostrate its awesome capability of finding matches even with watches that were recorded without knowing the actual case numbers. Lot 209 has a very particular patina on the back of the case. So I asked my database to look for matching patina. There was only one result, a perfect match with a watch of unknown serial number offered by Italian watch dealer Maurizio De Angelis in January 2021. Now, this guy is a real beauty! He was banned from the Rolex Passion Market as a result of some of my discoveries. Interestingly, the watch in question did not find its way into De Angelis’ hall of fame archive of sold watches and completely vanished from the website.

Coming back to Lot 209, the front of the watch has been completely changed, as can be seen in the juxtaposition below. The dial was swapped for a highly attractive ‘JPS’ and so was the bezel (thin vs. thick numerals). The hands and the bracelet were swapped as well. Also noteworthy is that they added patina to the case to give it this untouched, fresh to the market look, as if it sat for decades in a safe.

An interesting observation is the lousy condition of the minute and hour hands. They are full of scratches, which is an indication they were swapped around frequently and by careless people. If we look at the subdial hands, they are not correct for a ‘JPS’. This type of subdial hands with a straight, thin seconds hand and tapered 30 minutes and 12 hours hands were never used in combination with ‘Paul Newman’ dials and are actually from earlier Daytonas with regular dials.

It is only the unique patina and signs of wear on the back of the case that unmasks this as one and the same watch. The next picture shows the back of Lot 209 published in the catalogue.

The picture below shows the same watch in its previous state. Obviously the bracelet was a different one back in 2021. Also, forget about the scratches on the caseback. Either it was swapped as well or they refinished the surface and added new scratches to cover their tracks. Only a picture of the inside of the caseback can bring clarity, but as my readers know, Parmegiani stopped publishing detail pictures after I privately alerted him about a completely fake Rolex Daytona ‘Fuerza Aerea del Peru’ Ref. 6263 in their October 2020 catalogue.

To find the matching details it is necessary to zoom in considerably. See that damaged area at 6 o’clock near the caseback (green rectangle)? That was probably caused by someone trying to open the caseback with the wrong tool. The marks are absolutely matching. This is like a finger print. No two watches have this in the exact same spot, but there are many more matching details.

This case has developed a very unique patina and it is a perfect match.

There can be no doubt that this is one and the same case.

The movement in 2021 was a Cal. 722, which is wrong for this case number range. The correct caliber would be a 722-1, introduced around case number 1.4 million. This fact alone makes clear the watch was already a Frankenstein watch back then. In the lot description of Lot 209, the movement is indeed described as 722, so chances are it is still the same. Although, knowing how lazy Italian modders are, I would have expected them to just swap the entire movement/dial combo from one case into the next. However, it is also possible that this particular ‘JPS’ dial was never installed anywhere. It will be interesting to see if current pictures of the movement will surface following the publication of this article.

If you wish to download all the pictures from 2021 to do your own research, please use the Dropbox link below.

Download: All pictures from 2021 (dropbox.com)

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Lot 148 – Rolex Daytona ‘Tiffany & Co.’ Ref. 6239, 1196015

Before going into why I think the ‘Tiffany & Go.’ print is fake, it is already clear this Rolex Cosmograph is a total Frankenstein watch. Firstly, the dial is not period-correct for the 1.19 million case number range. Only the very first Cosmograph batches from 1963 had a ‘Swiss’ designated dial at 6 o’clock. From 1964 onwards, all Cosmograph dials were designated ‘T Swiss T’ in compliance with Swiss law.

Auction link: Lot 148 – Rolex Daytona ‘Tiffany & Co.’ Ref. 6239, 1196015 (monacolegendauctions.com)

The bezel is not period-correct either. Cosmographs in the 1.19 million case number range had bezels with a 300 tachymeter scale, not 200. It is absolutely ridiculous for an auction house claiming to have “unrivaled expertise”, let me repeat: UNRIVALED EXPERTISE, to offer such made-up junk, but it gets even worse as the ‘Tiffany & Co.’ print on the dial is an obvious fake in my opinion. ‘Big Boss’ Parmegiani should know better as they sold a similar watch with a proper print in October 2023, pictured in the comparison below on the right. Can you spot the difference?

Anybody who spent some time studying this stuff can immediately see the print is no good. As usual, the devil is in the details.

The comparsion below with five real ‘Tiffany & Co.’ prints, found on Rolex but also Patek Philippe watches from the era, leaves no doubt that there is something terribly off with the print. The counterfeiters used a different typeface altogether. I do not want to go into too much detail as these exposés are always also an instruction on how to improve the fakes.

Not much can be said about the rest of the watch. Since Parmegiani refuses to publish detail pictures of his lots, we have to trust that the engravings between the lugs, the stamps on the inside of the caseback and the movement are correct. Unrivaled expertise, remember?

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Lot 110 – Rolex Day-Date Ref. 6511, 99272, John Goldberger Collection

Of course we also need to talk about John Goldberger’s ‘Unicorn’ Day-Date, another of Parmegiani’s top lots. When it comes to Goldberger, whose real name is Auro Montanari, an unicorn is often a uni-con, a mini horse with an ice cream cone taped to the forehead. A striking watch at first glance, one look at the dial sufices to understand it is just another another Frankenstein watch, made-up from bits and pieces, just like Goldberger’s famous white gold ‘Unicorn’ Daytona.

Auction link: Lot 110 – Rolex Day-Date Ref. 6511, 99272, Goldberger Collection (monacolegendauctions.com)

The dial of this watch is not a 1955, it is from around 1958/59. Earliest serial production dials bore the designation ‘Officially Certified Chronometer’, not ‘Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified’, as can be seen below.

Since Montanari’s watch is claimed to be one of the very first Day-Dates ever made, why is it that the dial does not look anything like the one on the watch presented at the Basel Watch Fair in 1956? See how Rolex and Perpetual were on the same line?

More than a collector, Auro Montanari, or as I like to call him, Fraudo Monetari, is just another Italian modder. Guys like him are like little kids playing around with Lego, putting watches together from the best parts they can find. Originality be damned. If you really believe this watch was born with a stunning tropical dial from 1958/59, I have a bridge to sell you. As for the rest of the watch, me personally, I have a hard time believing the story that comes with it.

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Thoughts

After the ‘Lemon’ controversy and the subsequent discovery of a Faketona with Vietnam dial last auction season, nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Monaco Legend Auctions. They are well on the way to becoming the new Antiquorum, or even worse. They do not seem to care whether what they are offering is good or not, as long as they can make money. What we are witnessing is totally out-of-control greed in my opinion. It will be interesting to see what happens to the watches discussed in this article and how they will perform should they remain in the auction. I doubt any serious collector would want to own any of them. Damaged goods are hard to sell, except of course if there are other reasons for spending big money on them.

Thank you for your interest.