From SwissWatchExpo…
Spotlight on: Rolex defects that are highly collectible.
Rolex is world renowned for its exacting standards. The manufacture controls as much
of the watchmaking process as they can – from creating in-house movements to mixing their own
alloys – to make sure every aspect of their watches is done to perfection.
That said, mistakes are a part of life. In its history,
Rolex has released watches with imperfections – the result of experimenting with new materials
or a quality control oversight – but these are very, very rare instances.
As such “imperfections” are quite rare to see, they make the watches even more desirable.
Here are some Rolex defects that collectors love.
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The main appeal of collecting vintage watches is knowing that no two pieces will be exactly alike.
One interesting phenomenon that occurs with vintage Rolex is the color change – black dials
turn into a “tropical” brown shade, and blue dials and bezels become an interesting shade of purple.
Prime examples of these are older Rolex Submariner blue dials,
which fade into a regal shade of purple, thereby complementing the gold or two-tone finish.
There are also Rolex GMT-Master “Pepsi” models whose blue bezels turn into a bright
fuchsia color. These dials are the result of long-term exposure to sunlight and humidity,
and yield very interesting results that collectors seek.
There is also the case of the Rolex Daytona 16-5-20 “Patrizzi” dial,
whose chronograph registers have gone from white to brown.
Produced sometime in the early 1990s,
these Daytonas are coated with an organic varnish called Zappon.
As the varnish couldn’t sufficiently protect the dial, it resulted in natural oxidation
that gave the registers a unique shade of brown. These dials are named after Osvaldo Patrizzi,
an Italian auctioneer who first discovered these dials in 2005.
In the 1980s, Rolex went through a transitional period where they experimented with new materials
and different types of finishes to give their watches a more luxurious appearance.
One of these changes was the switch from matte to glossy dials, which used lacquer to create a
glistening effect. The earliest versions of these dials have not been perfected,
resulting in a cracked texture that mimics the look of a spider web.
These happy accidents, now called “Spider dials”, give each watch a unique appearance,
making them somewhat collectible.
There are also rare and novel examples of watches with missing text or misprints,
that are apparently due to quality control oversight. These “mistakes” are incredibly rare,
and in the world of watchmaking, rarity can prove highly desirable.
The Rolex GMT-Master has been released with many subtle dial differences,
and Rolex has inadvertently produced some outliers.
In the case of the reference 16-7-60 “Fat Lady”, there is a rare variant that reads
“Oyster Perpetual”, when the rest of the collection reads “Oyster Perpetual Date”.
There is also a small sub-variant of reference 16-7-10 watches where instead
of Roman numerals, the GMT-Master II print appears with stick markers.
There are even more rare and bizarre instances where only one piece out of
the entire production appears with the “error” – and these happened with modern Rolex references.
A Rolex Daytona reference 16-5-20 from 1999, and a referene 1-1-6-5-20 from 2003
were discovered without the usually-found red 'Daytona' script at 6 o'clock.
There is only one known instance per reference, both of which appeared in the auction market.
As recent as 2019, there was a Rolex Air-King reference 1-1-6-900 that turned up with a
curious case of two ‘nines’ on the dial – one that replaced the 3 o’clock marker.
According to WatchFinder.com, the said Rolex watch was put to market,
sold repeatedly, until someone else pointed out the mistake to the latest owner.
We can’t blame the people involved – the extra ‘nine’ blends in rather well, doesn’t it?
For a company known for perfection, Rolex errors are one in a million, giving them great appeal
among collectors. Explore our collection of Rolex watches at SwissWatchExpo.com.
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