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This must be the most expensive cheese knife ever sold. Over the weekend at the Monaco Legend Group auctions, a sharp yellow blade meant for dicing up Gruyères and Comtés, with the phrase “It’s a Good Watch” printed on it, hammered for $3.5 million. Oh, and it also happened to come with a one-of-12 Rolex chronograph that was never made available to the public. The sale price set a record for both cheese cutters and this particular sought-after Rolex model.
The Rolex 4113 is no stranger to breaking auction records. In 2011, it became the first Rolex ever to cross the million-dollar mark. So what makes it so special? For starters, it’s incredibly rare. Rolex only made 12 of these watches in the 1940s, and they were never sold publicly. These pieces were originally designed for aviation but, according to Monaco Legend Group, race car drivers adopted them as well. Instead of selling them, Rolex gave them to members of various racing teams, making them even more exclusive and attractive eight decades later. Another feather in this model’s cap is that it’s the only split-seconds chronograph Rolex ever made. (A split-seconds chrono, or rattrapante, is a feature that allows the wearer to time intervals, like a lap function on a stopwatch.)
About that cheese knife: This particular 4113 was last owned by the beloved collector Auro Montanari, who writes books under the pen name John Goldberger. This exact watch was seen on the cover of his book 100 Superlative Rolex Watches. In a 2013 Hodinkee video, Goldberger used a knife to pop open the watch’s caseback to the delight and alarm of viewers. “Did he just open up the caseback of his million-dollar-plus Rolex 4113 with his cheese knife?” someone commented. That’s now a $3 million-plus Rolex, dude.
Some other notable sales
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