Like their seven-time Super Bowl-winning owner, Tom Brady’s luxe timepieces and game-worn memorabilia exceeded expectations at the Sotheby’s “The GOAT Collection” auction. All 41 lots sold for a collective $9 million against an estimate of $5.2-$8.9 million.
The apex offering in the collection was Brady’s Rolex Daytona Paul Newman “John Player Special.” Perhaps the most covetable of the highly collectible late-60s Rolex Daytonas, this ultra-rare gold and black Rollie gets its nickname due to the similarity in color scheme to the 1978 Formula One-winning Lotus 78 race car, which was prominently sponsored by John Player Special cigarettes. In 2020, a bidding war jacked the price of a Daytona JPS to $1.5 million, nearly doubling the $800,000 estimate and setting a record for the model. By comparison, the $1.1 million someone paid against a $600,000-$900,000 estimate for a Daytona JPS Daytona owned by a living NFL legend could be considered a deal, of sorts.
There were several other overachievers in the collection. An IWC Pilot’s Watch Top Gun Edition SFTI blasted past the $10,000 top-end of its valuation to sell for $42,000, while a pink gold IWC Portugieser sold for $45,6000 against the same valuation. A pink gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore chronograph unexpectedly cracked six figures to achieve a $102,000 bid against $60,000, while a yellow gold Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph beat its $300,000 max estimate with a $312,000 sale. A one-of-one gold Royal Oak—featuring “TOM BRADY” indices set with diamonds and worn by the man himself at Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady—sold for $720,000 against a $400,000-$800,000 valuation, making it the second most valuable lot of the night next to the Daytona JPS.
As for Touchdown Tom’s game-worn gear, the hot-ticket item proved to be the jersey he wore during his final game as a Michigan Wolverine at the 2000 Orange Bowl, which concluded with a win over the Alabama Crimson Tide. According to Sotheby’s, a quartet of collectors battled for it, with the final bid coming in at $792,000 against a $300,000-$500,000 valuation. Meanwhile, Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers Game Worn Jersey, in which he broke the NFL record for all-time career passing yards, sold for $504,000 to an online bidder against a $400,000-$600,000 valuation.
In a statement to Sotheby’s before the sale, Brady said, “Over the years, I’ve figured out what my style really is, and it doesn’t have to be what everyone else wears.” Well, at least a few people can now wear exactly what Brady wore.
