The PHILLIPS New York Watch Auction: XIII takes place on 6-7 December 2025, at our Park Avenue headquarters. The auction includes more than 140 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogues we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sale right here, including the possibly unique, circa 1979 Rolex Daytona Ref. 6265 with "Green Khanjar" seen below.
Read our interview with the consignor of this watch, here.
The “Green Khanjar” Daytona occupies a tiny corner of Rolex history, but the watches that do surface always come with impressive history. They were created as gifts of state from His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman (1940-2019) and carried considerable symbolic weight. These watches were tokens of trust, often presented to individuals who played significant roles within the sphere of Gulf leadership.
The Daytona offered in the upcoming Phillips New York Watch Auction: XIII (lot 77) is one such piece. It is fresh to market, preserved by the same family since the late 1970s, and it’s accompanied by an exceptional depth of documentation and personal history.
The watch itself is a stainless-steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6265 with a black dial and a green Khanjar emblem set inside the 12-hour register at six o’clock. Green Khanjars are among the least common Omani signatures, and the pairing of a black dial with a vivid green Khanjar and “Big Red” Daytona text creates a configuration that scholars and collectors have long suspected might exist but had never seen confirmed.
According to our research, only two Rolex Daytonas with Green Khanjar have ever appeared publicly at auction. Both were Ref. 6263 examples with silver dials (the Daytona Ref. 6263 and Ref. 6265 were produced by Rolex in parallel, from approximately 1971 to 1987). The most recent Ref. 6263 with Green Khanjar to come to auction, sharing a serial number in the same range as the present Ref. 6265, sold at the Phillips New York Watch Auction: XI, in December 2024, for USD $381,000. However, a black-dial Ref. 6265 with a Green Khanjar has never appeared until now.
The watch's story begins with its original owner, an American pilot whose career took him from the U.S. Air Force to the royal flight operations of Dubai. His son, the consignor, has provided a detailed letter, flight logs, and photographs that trace a life spent around aircraft, national service, and serious responsibility.
After retiring from the U.S. Air Force, the father flew commercially for Iran Air before joining the Dubai royal family’s flight crew. He piloted the family’s Boeing 707 aircraft on global routes, including frequent leisure and diplomatic trips to Europe. The royal family expressed their appreciation and gratitude to him with a Rolex not available to the public: the present Daytona Ref. 6265, commissioned by the Sultanate of Oman for diplomatic and state gifting.
The connection between Dubai and Oman during this period was close, with Sultan Qaboos and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum of Dubai collaborating on aviation, logistics, and state visits. Pilots in the royal network often operated across both nations, supporting joint travel missions and transporting dignitaries from more than one Gulf state.
Members of Gulf ruling families frequently exchanged official gifts across borders, and watches commissioned by the Sultanate often traveled throughout the region. The father’s position within Dubai’s royal aviation team placed him inside a tight circle of trusted employees. These were the kinds of roles that often received gifts of state from Gulf leaders, individuals whose work was discreet, specialized, and trusted. It was in this climate of mutual cooperation that the present watch was awarded.
According to his son, the Dubai royal family presented the watch directly to his father in recognition of his service. The presentation of an Omani-commissioned watch in Dubai aligns with known patterns of Gulf diplomacy at the time, where royal households exchanged such objects with both regional allies and their own staff members.
Among the family’s preserved items is a gift set bearing the official seal of Sultan Qaboos, consisting of a gold-plated pen and a crocodile-pattern leather wallet housed in a green presentation box. Such diplomatic gift sets were often given in tandem with Omani Khanjar Rolex watches to royal pilots, foreign dignitaries, and key advisors. The presence of the official seal and personalization of the Sultan further affirms that this presentation came directly from the Omani court, underscoring the pilot’s service in joint UAE–Omani royal aviation operations.
The family kept extensive documentation. One photograph shows the father standing beside a Dubai royal Boeing 707 with fuselage markings in Arabic stating "United Arab Emirates Air." Flight log entries dated 1978–1979 confirm his assignment as a Boeing 707 pilot and reflect his senior position within the royal flight crew.
Additional images show him in full uniform, wearing four-bar epaulettes and a cap insignia consistent with a senior rank. Other photographs reach back to his Air Force years, including one believed to show him alongside Marlon Green, the aviator who helped desegregate the American commercial airline industry.
The watch’s physical details have been studied closely. Through the heavily scratched crystal, the dial shows a crisp green Khanjar with clean outlines and proper structure. Collectors familiar with Omani signatures are aware that the transfer plates used for the décalque technique of applying the emblem to the dial during this period produced subtle variations; however, each emblem must fall within a recognizable aesthetic range. This example does.
The shade of green, the proportions of the crossed swords, and the placement within the six o’clock sub-dial all track with confirmed period-correct markings seen across state-commissioned Rolex watches. The dial text is correct for a late 1970s Ref. 6265, the printing is even, and the alignment of the Big Red Daytona signature is consistent with other known examples. The case number sits exactly where it should in the production range and falls only two digits away from a Daytona Ref. 6263 with “White Khanjar”, which previously sold at the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: XVI, in November 2022.
This watch has never been publicly offered for sale. It remains exactly as the family preserved it for decades.
The son received the watch from his father and wore it frequently while attending medical school. His father passed away a few years ago, and the watch represents a direct link to his career that spanned continents and the inner workings of the Dubai royal fleet.
Fresh-to-market watches with such impeccable provenance always attract attention. The combination of a stainless-steel Ref. 6265, a black dial, and a green Khanjar emblem inside the six o’clock register makes this watch an utterly remarkable outlier.
Read our interview with the consignor of this watch, here.
You can view the complete Phillips New York Watch Auction: XIII auction catalogue here.