Buying, Selling, & Collecting: Three Rolex Watches With Everest Ties That I’m Still Thinking About, A Week Later
Next up was this ref. 6098 that sold at Phillips for CHF151,200. This particular Rolex belonged to a fella named Norman Günter Dyhrenfurth, who was part of that Swiss expedition to Mount Everest in 1952, the one that came soooo close to reaching the peak but stopped about 1,000 meters short, blazing a trail for the next year’s ascent. (The following year, the British expedition with Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary would make it to the top.) Turns out, Rolex covered its bases, sponsoring a number of Swiss and British expeditions, providing each of the mountaineers a watch that was supposed to be returned after the expedition. All the guys on the 1952 Swiss expedition were even from Geneva – imagine how badly Rolex must’ve wanted its hometown team to make it to the top. Guys like Dyhrenfurth were supposed to give their watches back to Rolex after the expedition. But whoops, he forgot, and 70 years later we’ve got its story to tell.