- Marlon Brando’s Rolex GMT-Grasp was just lately offered at Christie’s for greater than $5 million.
- The sale was placed on maintain, nonetheless, after the proprietor of the watch filed a civil criticism.
- The Rolex has distinct customizations that have been made whereas Brando was filming “Apocalypse Now.”
A uncommon Rolex GMT-Grasp worn by Marlon Brando in Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic “Apocalypse Now” is one among greater than 100 luxurious watches in a civil lawsuit just lately filed by the watches’ newest proprietor.
Brando’s Rolex, which options distinctive customizations, was offered at Christie’s public sale home in November for greater than $5 million.
The watch got here out of the gathering of Mohammed Zaman, an Omani businessman who has been accumulating watches for about 45 years, based on Christie’s. On November 6, 113 watches from his assortment, together with the Rolex GMT-Grasp, have been auctioned off for greater than $42 million.
However the transaction has been placed on maintain after Zaman filed a lawsuit in Geneva in regards to the sale, Bloomberg reported. It is unclear what challenge the collector has with the public sale home, however the profitable bidders have been informed to withhold making any funds till the authorized matter is resolved, based on the report.
A spokesperson for Christie’s and an lawyer for Zaman didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched throughout the weekend.
Denis Balibouse/Reuters
The surprising price ticket of Brando’s watch — which his daughter Petra Brando Fischer offered at an public sale in 2019 for $1.95 million — is partly as a result of watch’s distinct traits, particularly the engraving of the actor’s title on the again and the shortage of a bezel.
Whereas filming “Apocalypse Now,” Brando was informed by a manufacturing crew member to take away the watch as a result of “it might stand out,” Brando Fischer stated, explaining the watch’s backstory.
The lore goes that the actor protested in opposition to eradicating the watch, arguing, “In the event that they’re taking a look at my watch, then I am not doing my job as an actor.”
Within the 1979 movie, Brando performed the position of Col. Walter E. Kurtz, who goes rogue in a distant jungle throughout the Vietnam Struggle. “Apocalypse Now” was nominated for eight Oscar Academy Awards, received Greatest Sound and Greatest Cinematography, and is extensively thought-about one of many biggest movies ever made.
The manufacturing crew acquiesced, however Brando nonetheless wound up eradicating the watch’s bezel. He additionally engraved the again of the watch with “M. Brando” utilizing an electrical engraver pen, The New York Instances reported.
The Rolex was lengthy considered misplaced till 2019, when the actor’s daughter put the watch up on the market at Phillips public sale home.
In 1995, Brando gifted the watch to his daughter Petra for her commencement from Brown College, the Instances reported.
“This watch is sort of a tank. You are able to do something you wish to it and it’ll carry on going,” Brando Fischer recalled her father telling her, based on the report. “I would like you to have it as a reminder of how proud I’m of you.”
Brando Fischer later gifted the watch to her husband as a marriage current, which might be hidden of their dwelling for years till it was auctioned.
