These are the top five Rolex watches that nobody can buy. In an era where Rolex Submariner, Daytona, and GMT Master II watches in steel are price to the point of insanity, Tim Mosso offers five Rolex watches and technologies that watch collectors cannot buy for any price. From Rolex dive watches to exotic escapements to display casebacks, atomic watches from Rolex, and a Day Date perpetual calendar this episode discusses the top five Rolex watches literally nobody can own.

The Rolex Deepsea Special, an extreme dive watch launched in 1953, will go to auction with Phillips auctions this November. This Rolex watch is expected to bring over two million dollars at auction, and that's before the buyer's premium. In 2012, Rolex launched an even more exclusive high-tech dive watch called the Deepsea Challenge.

While loosely inspired by the Rolex Deepsea Sea Dweller 116660, the James Cameron-endorsed Deepsea Challenge was designed to hit bottom in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. This 12,000-meter water resistant Rolex diver successfully reached the sea bed and returned to the surface. But with only five examples of the 51mm Deepsea Challenge built, it's likely that even auction houses will struggle to obtain an example.

The Rolex Oysterquartz Day Date prototype of the 1990s was built for the future. Powered by a quartz chronometer Rolex caliber 5335, the Day Date perpetual calendar built on the legacy of Rolex's Gerald Genta-influenced luxury flagship. Significantly, the roughly 12 of these prototype Rolex watches built were constructed of stainless steel, and they come to auction, albeit rarely. In 2020, a prototype Rolex Day Date Oysterquartz perpetual calendar sold for over $250,000 at auction with Antiquorum.

Display casebacks on Rolex watches are a non-entity today, but in the early 2000s, it appeared that the next generation of Rolex watches all would include sapphire display casebacks. The 2000 Rolex Daytona 116520 included a caliber 4130 chronograph movement that featured significant aesthetic strides over previous workmanlike Rolex watchmaking. And in 2005, the Rolex Cellini Prince dress watch became the first series production Rolex watches with display backs. Even better, each example of the Cellini Prince - two in white gold, one in rose, and one in yellow - included a custom-finished Rolex caliber 7040 designed to echo the style of each model's dial.

Finally, Rolex watchmaking dabbled in exotic timekeeping technology. In 2014, Rolex received a patent for an atomic wristwatch. Critically, this was not a "radio watch" that receives signals from an atomic clock but a true self-contained atomic timekeeper accurate to seconds over centuries. Rolex mechanical watchmaking also investigated a constant force escapement based on an elastic buckling spring. The Rolex caliber 7230 "Project ELF" didn't bear fruit, but its inventor, engineer Nicolas Dehon, departed to Girard Perregaux after Rolex failed to complete its patent application. The resulting system -- in silicon rather than metal -- won the 2013 GPHG "Aiguille d'Or" as the Girard Perregaux Constant Escapement LM.

All of this plus the new Vacheron Constantin Overseas Everest Editions will be discussed during today's episode of Watches Tonight!

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