Breaking News: Phillips Halts Steve McQueen's Rolex Submariner Auction

It was big news in the watch world when Phillips announced this past June that it would be putting Steve McQueen's Rolex Submariner-the one gifted to his famed stuntman Loren Janes-up for auction on October 25th It was almost, but not quite, as big as Paul Newman's own Paul Newman Rolex Daytona that went up for sale at the auction house and ultimately ended selling for record-breaking $17.8 million Speculation about the provenance soon followed-the problem was that the timepiece could not be verified to have ever been worn by Steve McQueen himself.

The story the auction house told about the watch was that the Rolex Submariner reference 5513 was the earliest McQueen-owned Submariner known, and was reportedly purchased by the actor in the '60s As the story goes, it was later given to Loren Janes as a gift in the mid-to-late '70s with the engraving in all caps on the back of the timepiece: "TO LOREN, THE BEST DAMN STUNTMAN IN THE WORLD STEVE".

The watch was to come with a letter signed by Janes on February 22, 2017 attesting to its provenance along with photos from Rolex documenting its restoration and the book Steve McQueen: A Life in Pictures, which supposedly shows McQueen wearing the watch The Steve McQueen Rolex Submariner was previously thought to be lost in the 2016 wildfire outside of Los Angeles that destroyed 40,000 acres of land, including the home of Loren Janes and his wife The watch, as a result of restoration, has a matte, four-line 5512 dial even though the timepiece is a 5513 from the mid-'60s.

The questions of provenance lie in whether or not the watch has been further tampered with since Rolex restored it-watch restoration is a tricky minefield in the world of auctions and collection-and whether or not this was Steve McQueen's watch that he gifted to a friend or whether this was a watch he purchased solely to be worn by Janes Regardless, what's clear is that the McQueen family does not want the watch sold, some information from Phillips may have been inaccurate, and for those collectors who don't give a damn whether McQueen wore it or not, it will likely never be available again. . Source