Hello Riza,
Thank you for sending in the Rolex wrist watch to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Gent’s, rare, center-seconds, self-winding, water-resistant (50m), tonneau-shaped, stainless steel wristwatch, with black revolving bezel for elapsed time and accompanied by a stainless-steel solid link Rolex Jubilee bracelet, “Turn- O-Graph, Oyster, Perpetual, Officially Certified Chronometer” model, Ref. 6202, made by the Rolex Watch Company, Geneva, Switzerland, circa 1953. {1953 Turn-O-graph came with a riveted steel bracelet and therefore this Jubilee bracelet is replaced. Also, the Mercedes hands were added mid-late 1950s, as well as the unpainted center seconds hand with luminous circle one third the way down the shaft.}
DESCRIPTION:
Case: 36mm diameter, three leaf, polished and brushed stainless steel tonneau shaped watch case with screwed case back and screwed down crown, black graduated revolving bezel, with round dotted minutes having Arabic ten-minute markers and the dots positioned around the midline or waist of the bezel with the arrow showing the point zero rather than a luminous circle. The watch case is integrated at this point with a more modern looking stainless steel Rolex Jubilee bracelet with solid links, rather than the riveted links of the original bracelet.
Dial: Black honeycomb textured dial with luminous triangular, round and baton shaped hour indices indexes, each contained within a gold border. There are short open bar minutes with thicker five-minute markers, Luminous Mercedes skeletonized hands (added mid-late 1950s) and a steel pointer (not painted white) with luminous circle one third the way down the shaft from the tip. {Original hands were pencil shaped with points). The dial is signed, ‘Rolex’ with Cornet logo both in gold, small lettered ‘turn-o-graph, oyster’….’perpetual’ (separated from oyster) in the upper dial center and all in gold lettering, and in the lower dial center, “officially certified chronometer (in gold) and ‘Swiss’ at the base of the dial.
Movement: This is most likely the Cal. A296, a rhodium-plated, straight-line lever escapement, 18 jewels, monometallic balance, shock absorber, self-compensating Breguet balance spring. The partially shown movement serial number is 689xxx. The watch was fitted with the A260 Rolex movement in the mid-1950s and that caliber had 19 jewels. {The A260 was used in the 6202, 6204 and 6205 Oyster series in the 1950s. It is a fairly obscure mechanism compared to some of its mass-produced contemporaries. It is an automatic (self-winding) mechanism. Both the A260 and A296 were developed at the same time. Neither one is superior to the other. They just have different form-factors, with the A260 being designed for slimmer cases than the A296. Both are COSC certified as chronometers.}
CONDITION:
Case – Wear to the lugs and back edges of the case. The front of the case is in very good condition. The bracelet appears fairly new in condition. The bezel is quite good for its age but does have some patchy areas of slight discoloration. Overall case is very good, bracelet replaced by excellent.
Dial: very good with the black honeycomb excellent and the only negative is the lack of a darker patina on the luminous areas of the numerals and hands usually acquire over these past many decades.
Movement: Appears to be in very good original condition. Therefore, as previously noted this is mostly a 1953 example with a newer replaced bracelet, slightly later Mercedes hands and center second’s hand. Not bad for such a truly rare example of this watch which was first made in 1953 and by the first years of the 1960s was gone from the Rolex lineup.
COMPARABLES:
~https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-ref-6202-lot-283-270?browse_all=1&page=1&q=Rolex+ref.+6202 (Similar example sold for 40,000 swiss francs in 2014)
~https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-ref-turn-o-graph-6202-lot-335-297?browse_all=1&page=1&q=Rolex+ref.+6202 (similar with paperwork sold in 2021 for 23, 400 Euros = ~$28000)
~https://www.barnebys.com/realized-prices/lot/stainless-rolex-turn-o-graph-chronometer-ca-1953-DhziImAuMB (Early example with no bracelet sold in 2020 for $14500.)
~https://www.barnebys.com/realized-prices/lot/rolex-turn-o-graph-ref-6202-EXG1nhsX2 (sold in 2019 for $17500)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/87680805_rolex-turn-o-graph-ref-6202 (failed to reach $16000 minimum in 2020)
PRICING:
My impression is that your example is just about as fine as almost every example I can find online. I think the fair market value if you offered your example for sale in today’s watch market would be in the range $20000-$25000. Retail prices, of course, would be higher. As usual, it was quite an education for me.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for this appraisal.
My best,
David