ROLEX EXPLORER I 1016

When we bought this Rolex Explorer I it looked very tired and seemed to have lived a hard life with a heavily damaged crystal and thousands of hairline scratches all over the watch. But through that battle scared appearance we could see the potential of this killer Toolwatch. After the Explorer it’s full service she looked amazing and almost like new again, but now with a very cool vintage presence and ready for new adventures!

As you can see this Explorer I has a beautiful matte black dial, also called a MK1 ‘frog foot’ dial, referring to the splayed points of the Rolex coronet. These easily recognizable dials offer a bit more vintage flair as these were the first ones to be fitted into the 1016 Explorer watches after Rolex moved away from the Gilt dials. The dial on our Explorer is fairly clean with a warm white, sometimes vanilla looking Tritium. As it’s a later MK1 dial the Tritium is as good as dead and shows no reaction to UV, the same applies to the hands. These hands by the way, are early (still Tritium) service hands and show a slightly shorter minute hand. The 48 year old case looks great with strong, thick lugs and really no damages whatsoever. Still present on this Explorer watch (and we’re very happy about that) is the original 7836 folded Oyster bracelet with it’s 380 end-links, a rare bracelet which remains in a more than fair condition and one that is usually replaced by the newer ‘solid’ Oyster bracelet. All in all we feel that this is a wonderful 1016 Explorer in great condition, a watch that will be harder to come by as time ticks by. Happy to have giving this beauty a new life, we’re now looking for a new owner – Who’s ready for a new vintage watch adventure!?

As mentioned above, the entire watch and it’s movement were fully serviced and this Rolex Explorer I will be sold with a 12 month warranty.

reference: 1016
case number: 356XXXX
year of production: 1973
case diameter: 36mm
movement: automatic, caliber 1570
box and papers: no

SOLD