One of only 11 other examples of Rolex Ref.8206 to have appeared publicly at auction since 1992, in April 2024, our Select Jewellery & Watches auction featured an 18k pink gold Precision ‘Gabus’.
This watch was apparently purchased by the consigner's father whilst emigrating on the Turbine Steamship Fairsky from Southampton England to Brisbane Australia, via the Suez, canal in 1965. He was told his father disembarked while at port in Aden, in (now) Yemen while his mother remained on board attending to him and his brother, both very young at the time, his father returning with a Cine camera and Rolex watch. It can be assumed, as the reference was only made in small numbers between approximately 1945 and 1950, and as Aden was subject to anti-British Guerrilla warfare in 1965, his father found both watch and camera in a local store or British military base selling used items. However, there was a Rolex authorised distributer in Aden. It’s believed his father had purchased it relatively inexpensively as the consignor recalls him wearing it regularly without apparent consideration of value, this would also explain the discoloration to the original dial, also possibly from the humidity while living in Australia. Gifted to the consigner by his father shortly before passing in 2007, it has remained in his possession, unworn, since.
