Rolex. An exceptionally rare and unusual square cased 18k pink gold chronograph wristwatch

Rolex. An exceptionally rare and unusual square cased 18k pink gold chronograph wristwatch
Precision ?Gabus? Ref.8206, made circa 1945
Cal.69 mechanical 17 jewel movement, silvered dial with applied pink dagger markers, concentric blue base 1 mile tachometer scale, pink Alpha hands, subsidiary dials for constant seconds and 20 minute registers, pink gold square case with rectangular chronograph pushers, concave bezel, prominent flared stepped lugs. Case, dial and movement signed.
Dimensions 29mm x 29mm.
This watch was apparently purchased by the consigner's father whilst emigrating on the Turbine Steamship Fairsky from Southampton England to Brisbane Australia, via the Suez, canal in 1965. He was told his father disembarked while at port in Aden, in (now) Yemen while his mother remained on board attending to him and his brother, both very young at the time, his father returning with a Cine camera and Rolex watch. It can be assumed, as the reference was only made in small numbers between approximately 1945 and 1950, and as Aden was subject to anti-British Guerrilla warfare in 1965, his father found both watch and camera in a local store or British military base selling used items. However, there was a Rolex authorised distributer in Aden. It?s believed his father had purchased it relatively inexpensively as the consignor recalls him wearing it regularly without apparent consideration of value, this would also explain the discoloration to the original dial, also possibly from the humidity while living in Australia. Gifted to the consigner by his father shortly before passing in 2007, it has remained in his possession, unworn, since. The case design of the Ref.8206 is quite unusual for Rolex and would explain the very small number produced, constructed in a two-piece substantial structure similar in feel to the famous Patek Philippe rectangular 2440/2441/2442 references, it features heavy curled lugs that were fashionable for the period. To this day, the case on the example offered opens and closes with a reassuring ?snap? sound due to the tight-fitting solid construction. According to our research, only 11 other examples of Rolex Ref.8206 have appeared publicly at auction since 1992, of those, only 3 feature a BASE 1 MILE tachometer designation matching the lot offered here, the remaining using BASE 1000 (one loose dial only was sold in 2021 with BASE 1 MILE.) Within the last decade, it appears only 2 other Rolex Ref.8206 watches have appeared publicly at auction. Those offered in the 1990?s were often accompanied by a footnote stating that only 37 examples of the Ref.8206 in pink gold were made.An almost identical example of Ref.8206 in yellow gold with silvered dial can be found in ?Chronograph Rolex, The Legend? by Pucci Papaleo on page 150, describing the model (in Italian) as a ?magnificent and unobtainable chronograph?. A further example of an 8206 with silvered Precision dial, blue spiral tachometer and SWISS signature in yellow gold can be found in ?The Watch? by Alexander Barter, page 140.