Rolex

Explorer... My second King without Guards...

 

As promised in my previous post introducing my three Kings without crown guards, I will tell you a bit more about my 1016 Explorer.

I had always loved the look of this most extraordinary watch, whose name brings inmediately, the image of snow covered mountains, old explorers and wild adventurers, which happened in long gone, more romantic, and less complicated times.

I feel that Rolex should never had abandoned those thick luminous arabic numbers of the past, in the present made rendition of this handsome timepice.

I own a copy of reference 114270, which I find a great modern watch. But nice as it is, I find it lacking the charm of the vintage counterpart.

I have been looking for a good vintage example of reference 1016, for a long time, and a few very nice pieces were handled, till last year, I finaly fell in love with this one.

It was made in 1965, got a beautifully made gloss dial, which looks like having  a black laquer surface.

Its gilt inscriptions bring a lovely contrast against that black lacquer, and the indexes show a thick cover of tritum material, which still glow very faintly        in the dark.

The riveted links Oyster bracelet, complete vintage flavour of  this watch, which retains all the spirit of this reference, and its timeless design.

I wish you´ll like this old watch, which is a real pleasure to feel on the wrist.

Cordial regards, Abel. 

This message has been edited by Subexplorer on 2012-01-27 15:42:18