The ref 8171 by Rolex can be compared to in the car world to an Aston Martin DB4 Zagato.
Or if your more into Italian cars, perhaps a 250 TDF 14 Louvre model. Another words it is very rare. Extremely desirable and very collectable.
Rolex in their long history of more than 100 years made very few complicated watches.
Rolex is mostly a tool watch company. GMT Master for pilots, Submariner for divers, Explorer for well, explorers, Daytona for timing of races.
But in the 1950s Rolex made two triple date (a term meaning seeing the day, date month with moon phase) wristwatches which are highly collectible today. First came the 8171 which was an automatic non oyster (oyster meaning not water proof with a snap on case back). They produced this watch from 1948-1952 with an estimated production of 3-4oo watches in total. They made the cases in mostly gold, some pink gold and very rarely in steel (as the one above).
The other triple date by Rolex is the ref 6062 of which there were various versions (stelline, star dial). This watch was an Oyster Perpetual (so waterproof) and slightly smaller at 36mm diameter.
So why is the 8171 so collectible? Well there are several reasons.
Firstly it is rare. Secondly the size at 38mm was usually large for that time (remember we are talking 1950s here). The Italians even nicknamed the 8171 ‘Padelone’ or frying pan because of the large diameter. The one you see above is especially rare not only for the case (steel-very few watches were made in that metal) but also because of the usual dial layout. The dial is a two-tone dial with four baguette diamonds.
Christies is selling this watch in New York on December 17th and it is undoubtedly the highlight of the auction.
The estimate of this watch is USD 250 -350′ooo (for the full listing of the watch click here). But given that another similar watch in steel sold for USD 585′ooo last year (see here), we think this record will be broken. The 8171 being sold in New York is in just as fine condition and has the diamond dial, which is more rare.
This is a trophy asset that all the best collectors in the world will be bidding for.
