1665 Brown: The Tropical King of Tools

Umberto Scano is a famous Italian collector considered worldwide one of the best experts about 1665s. Let’s discover with him the secrets of this extraordinary art work.

The reference 1665 encloses all the elements that led to Rolex international success: strength, reliability and coolness. But the greatest contribution made by Rolex to watchmaking is definitely the research for another element: water resistance. And then which model can truly represent the best of the history and essence of Rolex? And what are the characteristics that make vintage Rolex sports models so fascinating , sought after and appreciated by collectors all over the world? The “pallettoni” dials, their beautiful Oyster case and the magnificent domed glass. And then the sea-dweller does not fear comparisons ! But you know, collecting leads to exasperation, it leads to the maniacal research of details, the exciting lust to own something unique. So in recent years the collectors’ frenzy turned to a type of dials defined “tropical” that, born blacks, with time took on a brownish color, giving the watch a truly vintage warmth.

The different gradations of shades of color make each one of these watches unique. And even here the sea-dweller is second to none!  The double red dial produced for Rolex by Singer from 1969 to 1972 and known as Mark II by collectors around the world, has this characteristic. As we said every tropical is different from everyone else,  every gradations of shades of color will never be completely identical, and the incidence of light will always create different “nuances”, always ensuring great satisfaction to the lucky owner. The market puts at the top of the desirability those dials whose color change is uniform, without considering that some “fiammate” shades may give the watch an even stronger charme.

Same matter for the gradation of brown. The market rewards in a remarkable way, the clearest dials – the milk chocolate ones – by the fact that they are unquestionably the rarest. But this should not make our mind clouded: often the darker ones have a lot of strenght and very much character !

Author: Luca Balella