Maker: |
Rolex |
Model: |
GMT Master |
Reference No.: |
6542 |
Date: |
1956 |
Case: |
38mm. diameter steel unpolished case with original? faded pink and blue insert to the bezel. Original underline winding crown. The case back fully signed and stamped 6542 IV / 56 |
Dial: |
The wonderful Tropical dial has the original creamy yellow lume with matching original lume in the hands, calendar aperture at position 3. |
Movement: |
Original fully signed and serviced Cal 1030 movement. |
Strap: |
Riveted Rolex steel bracelet, U.S. market C * I dated 1977 |
Info: |
Info: This is an extremely rare Rolex 6542, it is in fabulous original condition and it has immense character. The 6542 is Rolex's earliest incarnation of the GMT, they only made it for 6 years from 1954 to 1959 before it was replaced by the reference 1675. The 6542 is immediately characterised by the lack of case crown guard for the winder - this characteristic is the defining feature of the 6542 and no other GMT shares this design, in 1959 when Rolex 'upgraded' the GMT to the early ref 1675 they added crown guards. The case is unpolished and it still retains some of the chamfer to the edges of the lugs - this is very rare because the vast majority of early Rolex watch cases have been re-polished. The case is dated IV 56 for the fourth quarter of 1956 which is only 2 years after the first Rolex GMT was made. The case has the serial number 212 which exactly fits the year it was made. The most impressive part of this watch is the astonishing 'Tropical' dial which lends this watch such immense character. The gloss surface would originally have been black but over the decades the UV sunlight has turned the dial paint pigment brown - an effect we call 'Tropical' - very few Rolex dials turn tropical. The lume plots on the dial are original, they have a toasty-creamy colour and turn the right colour green in under UV, the hands are original and so too is their lume which matches the dial lume. The bezel insert is a very early faded pepsi bezel. The very first examples of the reference 6542 were made with Bakelite bezels which were very susceptible to damage so by the end of 1956 they started to use alloy bezels as in this example. However it is possible that this example is a replacement insert, so we have also purchased a modern plastic example of the bakelite insert for you to see what it would have originally looked like. |
