80 | FORBES ASIA JUNE 2018DAMN STUNTMAN IN THE WORLD. STEVE—making it
the only known McQueen watch to bear the actor’s name.
For decades McQueen’s watch was presumed missing, until
July 2016, when the historic Sand Fire raged through Los An-
geles for nearly two weeks. Among the 18 Canyon Coun-
try homes lost in the massive wildire was the house in which
Janes, who was sufering from Alzheimer’s disease, had lived
with his wife since the 1990s. (He died in June 2017.) Eisenberg
remembers reading a story at the time about the couple losing
all their possessions, including some of Janes’ most treasured
mementos: mugs belonging to John Wayne, a knife used by
Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II and McQueen’s
Submariner.
“I begged them to go back to the house and si through
ashes,” Eisenberg says, recalling the conversations he had with
Janes’ wife and their daughter, Erika. “A few weeks later, they
called me back to say they had found it.”
Now, even a Rolex that has survived that kind of holocaust
cannot be expected to keep on ticking. Aer all, a Submariner
was designed for deep-sea conditions—not ire. So Eisenberg
recommended that the family take the watch to Gearys, a
luxury boutique in Beverly Hills, to have it professional-
ly restored. Gearys immediately sent the watch to Rolex head-
quarters in New York, which miraculously brought the watch
back to life, preserving the precious case back. To this day, soot
is wedged in the bracelet clasp.
Upon returning the watch to Erika Janes, Rolex sent her a
letter highlighting its extraordinary provenance. “he story you
graciously shared with our oicial Rolex Jeweler,” a customer
service manager wrote, “is an amazing testament to the dura-
bility of a Rolex timepiece. Your father, through his devotion to
his cra, his fellow stuntmen, those for whom he daringly dou-
bled—including his friend and gier of his watch—Mr. Steve
McQueen, and of course to his family, demonstrates traits that
embody true Excellence. We are proud that he chooses to wear
a Rolex Submariner.”
With the watch restored, Eisenberg made the Janes fami-
ly a generous ofer to buy it—though he declines to name the
amount. Aer ielding a few other estimates, they accepted
Eisenberg’s bid; the family and Boys Republic, a charity that
McQueen cared deeply about, will also receive a portion of the
auction sale.
Much as Eisenberg loves collecting celebrity memorabil-
ia—he’s owned everything from James Bond tuxedos to a Dor-
othy dress from he Wizard of Oz—he occasionally sells his
most valuable items, usually to buy better ones. (In 2014 he re-
portedly sold the “Captain America” chopper from Easy Rider
at auction for $1.35 million.) But no star has the allure of Steve
McQueen when it comes to collectibility—in large part be-
cause he was seen as a man’s man who lived his movie fantasies
in real life and also because of the scarcity of the cars, bikes and
clothes he actually owned. “Elvis, Bogart, James Dean,” Eisen-
berg says, “nobody’s items have sold for the same prices. It
could be 10x or 100x if it were owned by McQueen.”
he King of Cool certainly reigns among car collectors,
who regularly pay a premium for a vehicle once owned by Mc-Queen. In 2011 his 1970 Porsche 911S, which had a cameo in
Le Mans, sold at auction for $1.38 million. (he same car with-
out the McQueen connection would sell for around $75,000.)
And last year the 1970 Porsche 917K that took home the
checkered lag in that ilm sold for more than $14 million at
auction—a record for a Porsche.
But it’s still Newman who has the upper hand in the watch
world, thanks to the Phillips auction last October. In less than
ive years, under the aegis of Aurel Bacs, the star auctioneer be-
hind Phillips’ partner Bacs & Russo, and Paul Boutros, Phillips’
head of Americas and an international strategy advisor for the
watch division, the auction house has become the market leader
in terms of annual watch sales—$112 million in 2017, up more
than $5 million from 2016. Aer the record Paul Newman Day-
tona sale last year, Phillips shattered a few more records in May
when it auctioned 32 vintage Daytonas in Geneva. All 32 lots
found a buyer, and ive timepieces sold for more than $1 million
each. hat same weekend, Phillips auctioned an Omega watch
owned by Elvis for $1.8 million (a record for that brand), bring-
ing the two-day total to more than $45 million.
With such a turbo-fueled watch market, Eisenberg knew
that he would be able to sell the McQueen Submariner almost
as quickly as he bought it. “When
it inally dawned on me that I was
never going to own the Newman
watch,” he says of his strategy
to bring the Rolex to auction, “I
reached out to Phillips and said,
‘I’ve got your next hero watch.’ ”
Boutros agreed. “He saw what
we did with the Newman watch,
the efort we put behind it,” he
says, “because he felt like Phillips
could do something special with
it.” Rather than rush it to auc-
tion following the Newman fren-
zy, Phillips decided to wait a year.
“Similar to the Newman watch,
we wanted to give this timepiece
the spotlight it deserves.”
he McQueen Submariner will have a low presale esti-
mate—between $300,000 and $600,000—but so did Newman’s
Rolex, which was modestly expected to exceed $1 million. “My
real estate background tells me that there’s more air in the bub-
ble,” Eisenberg says of the astronomical auctions. “here’s never
been so much money out there. hese sale prices are like tele-
phone numbers.” But, he continues, “I worked at Drexel back
in the day and learned you can’t call a top and you can’t call a
bottom.”
As for the inal sale price the watch will reach this Octo-
ber, Eisenberg doesn’t believe McQueen will surpass Newman,
but he’s optimistic: “I think this irm has the ability to do that.
I trust the universe.” Besides, he notes, “it only takes two bid-
ders” and then the “mine’s bigger” mentality takes over. “A n d
I’m not talking about body parts—I’m talking about check-
books.”Forbes Life OUT OF THE ASHES
Hammer time: Can McQueen’s
Submariner eclipse the $17.8
million auction price of Paul
Newman’s Rolex Daytona?F