Consigned by the family of the original owner, the present ref. 6265 is part of the exceedingly small production of the model made for the North American market, as indicated by its 14K gold case. Having worked on cruise ships mainly around the US, he had purchased the watch during one of his journeys in the late 1970s as an investment.

The overall superb condition underlines that it has indeed not only hardly been used if at all but spent most of his nearly 50 years of existence safely locked away. The case has preserved full proportions and incredibly crisp hallmarks and engraved serial and reference numbers. The pinholes for the bracelet bars are well defined and correctly distanced from the edges of the lugs. Subtle traces of oxidation further show that the case has not been touched in a long time.

The champagne dial is likewise in excellent, unspoilt condition, the luminous dots are all present and show a uniform cream colour. As to be expected, bezel, chronograph pushers and crown are the are the correct versions.

Another noteworthy feature is the four-digit number (in this instance 1313) engraved on the movement plate in front of the calibre number. This number corresponds to the number given for the C.O.S.C. test of the movement at the Geneva Observatory, a characteristic found exclusively on the cal. 727 movements of the gold cased references 6263 and 6265 from the 1970s and 1980s.

This superbly preserved and fresh to the market ref. 6265 represents the rare opportunity for the collector to acquire one of the rare 14K gold versions of the celebrated model.

Reference 6265
Together with ref. 6263, ref. 6265 was launched in the late 1960s, replacing ref. 6240, the first Oyster Cosmograph with screw down pushers. In production for almost 20 years, the two references were available respectively with a metal or acrylic insert, predominantly in stainless steel. Production of 18K or 14K gold examples is estimated to only some 10% of the total output, 14K gold being the rarest.

For detailed descriptions and illustrations of the different versions of reference 6265 see I Cronografi Rolex - La Leggenda, Pucci Papaleo Editore, pp. 336 - 349.