Issue 12 · Oct 11, 2026Weekly

No Reserve

01·1 min read

The Summary

The British taxman is selling a Philippe Dufour with no reserve, seized in a payroll fraud case, and you can bid on it

A steel watch from Finland sold for $1,016,000, more than seven times what a gold Patek fetched in the same sale

A "Paul Newman" Daytona nobody had seen before sold for about $500,000, the result we promised you on Wednesday

Washington's most exclusive Rolex is one Rolex did not make

Three days after our market call, the auctions answered it

How to bid at a no-reserve sale without crying at 10:59am

02·8 min read

The Wire

The taxman is selling a Philippe Dufour. With no reserve.

HM Revenue and Customs, Britain's tax authority, has been investigating a suspected payroll fraud. According to the investigators, more than £7 million, about $9.2 million, was spent on luxury watches over three years. Five of those watches, worth about £1 million, were seized from a person trying to leave the UK.

They are now being sold by Wilsons Auctions, which sells on behalf of UK government bodies and police forces, in an online sale that runs for 24 hours from 11am on 29 October to 11am on 30 October, UK time. Every lot is offered with no reserve.