One of the earliest Rolex sports watches produced in series, the reference 6202 was introduced to the market in 1953, changing the landscape for sports watches forever. Bearing the unwieldy moniker “Turn-O-Graph”, it stayed in production for only a few short years, but its influence was nevertheless long-lasting.
One of the most remarkable innovations was the rotating bezel, calibrated to 60 minutes, allowing for more precise time measurement. Though the 6202 is not the first Rolex wristwatch to be fitted with the rotating bezel, it is the first reference to be widely distributed, and the ancestor of the more specialized Submariner, GMT-Master, and Milgauss. However, soon the demand for the sons came to eclipse that of the father, and the popularity of the latter references overshadowed the small but mighty Turn-O-Graph.
The present watch comes from a small town in Montana. The consignor inherited a local jewelry store from his father, who was also a watchmaker, in the mid 1970s, and the watch was part of that inheritance. As it was without a bezel when the consignor came into possession of it, he sourced a “new-old-stock”, period-correct bezel from a watchmaker in Stockholm, Sweden. Having held onto it for many years, we are delighted that he has trusted Phillips with the sale of this impressively well-preserved, historically important timepiece.