Our series continues, introducing you to the most fascinating unique watches set to be exhibited at the "One-of-a-Kind" ОАК Collection in London's Design Museum.
The exhibition due to take place in March but has been postponed again until May 19 to 25. This time, Rolex is in the spotlight. We already gave you a rundown of the most interesting Patek Philippe models from the OAK Collection. But the exhibition also included plenty of remarkable Rolex pieces — runner-up on the pre-owned watch market.
Rolex doesn't produce models in the haute horlogerie category, and the value of its watches the tends to be determined by who the previous owner was, and of course how rare it is. Well, the watch-industry giant does also release limited series in very small quantities from time to time, although it's highly unprofitable for a manufacturer with a production capacity of its size.
That's exactly why the star of the Rolex watches on exhibition in the OAK Collection is tipped to be a model dubbed the Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master Ref. 16700 "Chuck Yeager" Limited Edition: a series launched in 1997 and limited to just 50 pieces (the exhibition piece is no. 18 in the series).
The release was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of history's first manned supersonic flight captained by Chuck Yeager of the US Air Force, who flew a Bell X-1 aircraft over the Mojave Desert on October 14, 1947. Rolex decided to mark the date in 1997, in honor of Brigadier General Yeager who had been a true brand ambassador by personal preference throughout his entire life.
The first pilot to complete a supersonic flight was wearing a Rolex Oyster Perpetual on his wrist when he broke the sound barrier. The record organizers had their doubts about whether the watch would be able to stand the test of atmospheric pressure.
But all was well, and as a token of appreciation, Chuck Yeager sent a photo of his watch with the aircraft in the background to Rolex Founder Hans Wilsdorf, who subsequently used the photo in one of the brand's advertising campaigns.
Of course, the Swiss watch-industry giant didn't stop everything to kit out its production capacities with new machinery to create custom Chuck Yeager models. This task was taken on by a Rolex watch-tuning firm in Japan called the Real McCoy’s.
The model houses the caliber 3175 movement with quick-set date display and hacking feature for the central seconds. The case and bracelet are made of stainless steel, while the bezel is decorated in red and blue, hence why Rolex fans nickname it a "Pepsi bezel".
The second model is another member of the glorious GMT-Master family of watches, although the Ref. 6542 was introduced much earlier in 1959. This piece was dedicated to the fictional American character Pussy Galore from Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger, apparently the only woman running an organized crime gang in the United States.
Other infamous female villains who ran gangs like Ma Baker of the Barker-Karpis family were ruled out, who toured America with her sons convicted of robbery and murder. This model is considered a rarity in that it was named after a matriarch, and the Ref. 6542 watch itself was only manufactured for three years.
However, this was precisely the watch worn by the actress Honor Blackman who played the Bond villain Pussy Galore in the film Goldfinger. The model is also equipped with caliber 1066 and has a Bakelite bezel, which the brand stopped using due to its brittleness, and its numerals also faded at a fast rate.
Another GMT-Master from the OAK Collection called Blueberry was released in 1972 with a steel case and bracelet, powered by the caliber 1570 movement. The watch gets its name from its bezel decorated with blue inserts.
This truly is a rare model, as limited batches were delivered to armed forces in Peru and a range of Middle Eastern countries. The watch was also provided to clients serving in a number of official posts as a replacement option during repairs.