Friday, March 13, 2020

Mysterious 1967 Rolex Daytona Ad



Mysterious 1967 Rolex Daytona Ad


Nick from Adpatina.com sent in this 1967 Rolex Daytona ad which features a mystery that Nick Gould first pointed out to me. The mysterious detail is that the Rolex chronograph in the ad lacks a tachymeter scale on the bezel or dial, which contradicts the text description which reads:

"The Rolex Daytona Chronograph is for pinning down your lap time to a fifth of a second. It has second, minute and hour stop-recorders as well as a small continuous second hand and tachometer engraving on the bezel.




I reached out to vintage Rolex Dealer Eric Ku from 10pastten.com on this mystery. Eric Ku is like an 10th degree black-belt when it comes to Rolex knowledge.

Eric Ku said: 


"It's NOT a mistake. There is a batch of late Rolex Reference 6238 models with that same configuration. Late production 6238 cases that were well into production range of 6239 (1.2 Million or later Reference 6238 sometimes come like this).

Jake's Take: I have never seen one of these really rare Daytona models before which appears to have been some kind of transitional model. I have seen Pre-Daytona models that featured the scale on the dial as seen on George Lazenby below, but never one without a scale. I have seen other chronographs in the past that lacked any kind of scale and I thought they looked clean and interesting, as does this model. My best guess is Rolex experimented with this clean design and concluded the watch would look sportier or be more useful if it had a tachymeter scale.




George Lazenby

Rolex Pre-Daytona Chronograph


George Lazenby wore two different Rolex watches when he played James Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Lazenby wore a Rolex Submariner as well as a Rolex Pre-Daytona Chronograph which we see in the photo below taken in 1968 by Heinz Baumann.


In the photo above of George Lazenby we see him flipping through his Louis Vuitton notepad which is a classic as the Pre-Daytona Rolex Chronograph he wore which is pictured below. The photo below is of the actual Rolex Chronograph pictured above on Lazenby's wrist. Lazenby's Rolex Pre-Daytona was originally sold by Bucherer in Interlaken, Switzerland and was purchased by Eon Productions on October 23, 1968. The original Bucherer receipt was made out to Mr. David Middlemas, Eon Production LT, with the price tag of 790 CHF.  This watch unique as it was the only Pre-Daytona Chronograph 6238 with a red hand. It featured a Caliber 722 which was produced by Rolex between 1965 and 1968. 







At the end of the film shoot, Eon productions decided to sell the wardrobe and accessories, as well as the watch. The accountant of the production bought the watch and later auctioned it with Christie's in December of 2003 in an auction in Kensington. The watch was offered for auction in by Artcurial Auction House in 2016 and the bidding reached €300,000, which was below the reserve price, so it did not sell.