Manufacturer: Rolex Year: 1956 Reference No: 6611 Case No: 236'162 Model Name: Day-Date Material: 18k white gold and diamonds Calibre: Automatic, 1055 Bracelet/Strap: Rolex Jubilee Clasp/Buckle: Folding deployant clasp stamped 4.57 Dimensions: 36mm. Diameter Signed:Movement, dial, case and bracelet signed Provenance: Property from An Important European Collector Literature: The present lot is illustrated in Day Date, The Presidential Rolex by Pucci Papaleo, Spin Edizioni
Provenance
Property from An Important European Collector
Catalogue Essay
Reference 6611 must be considered one of the rarest Day-Date models, and examples in white gold are the rarest gems in the entire field of wristwatch collecting. In fact in forty years of international auctions scholars have not even counted a handful of these treasures. The present example, coming from one of the finest collections of vintage wristwatches, has a number of noteworthy features underlining its importance. The dial with its outer half minute track at an angle has a wonderful pale champagne patina and is adorned with 10 diamond hour markers. Its elegance is enhanced by not being overloaded with luminous dots, a fact matching the white gold hands being non luminous as well. The Jubilee bracelet in white gold dated 1957 is equally rare. It is a treat for a collector that it is still together with the watch after more than half a century. Few Rolex Day-Dates are as elegant yet understated and of such rarity and importance as the present one.
Founded in 1905 England by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis as Wilsdorf & Davis, it soon became known as the Rolex Watch Company in 1915, moving its headquarters to Geneva in 1919. Like no other company, the success of the wristwatch can be attributed to many of Rolex's innovations that made them one of the most respected and well-known of all luxury brands. These innovations include their famous "Oyster" case — the world's first water resistant and dustproof watch case, invented in 1926 — and their "Perpetual" — the first reliable self-winding movement for wristwatches launched in 1933. They would form the foundation for Rolex's Datejust and Day-Date, respectively introduced in 1945 and 1956, but also importantly for their sports watches, such as the Explorer, Submariner and GMT-Master launched in the mid-1950s.
One of its most famous models is the Cosmograph Daytona. Launched in 1963, these chronographs are without any doubt amongst the most iconic and coveted of all collectible wristwatches. Other key collectible models include their most complicated vintage watches, including references 8171 and 6062 with triple calendar and moon phase, "Jean Claude Killy" triple date chronograph models and the Submariner, including early "big-crown" models and military-issued variants.