Rolex - The Geneva Watch Auction: XIX featuring the Guido Mondani Collection Geneva Saturday, May 11, 2024 | Phillips

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  • Condition Report

  • Manufacturer: Rolex
    Year: 1977
    Reference No: 18038
    Movement No: 0330777
    Case No: 5'314'794
    Model Name: Day-Date
    Material: 18K yellow gold
    Calibre: Automatic, cal. 3055, 27 jewels
    Bracelet/Strap: 18K yellow gold Rolex President bracelet stamped "55" to the endlinks, max length 185mm
    Clasp/Buckle: 18K yellow gold Rolex hidden deployant clasp stamped "F 18000" and "D"
    Dimensions: 36mm Diameter
    Signed: Case, dial, movement and bracelet signed

  • Catalogue Essay

    This example of ref. 18038 most notably displays a hard stone ammonite dial with diamond-set Arabic markers. One of the most unusual dial materials ever to be featured on a watch, this dial in made up of fossilized ammonites (a prehistorical mollusc). Consequently, no two dials are exactly the same in nature, giving each watch a distinctive and unique appearance.

    Not only an aesthetically quirk, the intellectual implication of having a timepiece measuring hours, days and week featuring a dial which encapsulates beings millions of years old is quite mind-bending.



    Rolex is famed in the world of watchmaking for its excellence of execution and inventiveness when it comes to using hard stone and unusual materials. The manufacture has elevated its dress watches with materials such as rubellite, blood stone, coral, and a number of different fossil-bearing stones, providing an unusual design twist to classic models.

  • Artist Biography

    Rolex

    Swiss • 1905

    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.

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Ref. 18038
A highly attractive, uncommon and surprising yellow gold automatic calendar wristwatch with center seconds, ammonite dial and bracelet

1977
36mm Diameter
Case, dial, movement and bracelet signed

Estimate
CHF20,000 - 40,000 
€20,400-40,900
$21,900-43,700

Sold for CHF35,560

Contact Specialist

Alexandre Ghotbi
Deputy Chairman, Watches, Head of Watches, Europe, and Middle East

+41 79 637 17 24
AGhotbi@phillips.com

Tiffany To
Head of Sale, Geneva

+41 79 460 55 88
TiffanyTo@phillips.com

The Geneva Watch Auction: XIX featuring the Guido Mondani Collection

Geneva Auction 11 - 12 May 2024