16550, Cream 'Panna' Dial Explorer II, Steel

Total perfection is, in fact, rather boring. Remember that kid in your graduating class who knew every answer and aced each exam? You never had a drink with them. It’s also why modern Rolex dials feel so clinical, they simply don’t evoke any emotion. To err is human; when something has foibles, that’s a distinctly human quality. I’ve contemplated many times just why ‘mistakes’ from Rolex are often considered highly desirable. I think that’s just it, the same reason we love vintage: we’re able to build a deeper relationship with an object that is imperfect because, on some level, we relate to it. That’s what the cream dial 16550 perfectly represents, one of the most romantic mistakes Rolex ever made.

Most white dial 16550s were born with a paint defect which meant their dials went cream in tone over time. The extent and depth of that cream tone is often amplified or diminished with UV exposure over its lifetime. The differentiation between cream dial Explorer IIs, both in beauty and value, is to be found in just how even and just how deep the cream patina is. When perfected, the resulting effect is almost as if the entire dial is a deep tritium tone, perfectly matching the indices. Such is the case here.

The 16550, a somewhat transitional reference, is really where the modern Explorer II design began. The 16550 updated the classic 1655 design by adding a fully independent jumping hour hand to track secondary timezones, but axed the orange hand in favor of bright red. Production ran from 1984 to 1989, with fewer pieces being produced than the references on either side of it. This example is one of the earliest we’ve seen, with a 1984 production. While it hasn’t been often discussed (outside our last post about one), the cream dial 16550 was perhaps made most famous for being worn by chef Gordon Ramsey for many years.

Of all iterations, this example sports one of the most desirable configurations out there. First, it’s a non-rail dial, which in cream 16550s is actually rarer. Second, it sports white gold surrounds which complement the cream tone far better than the latter black surrounds. Lastly, it has that deliciously squared bezel font that you only get on 16550s. And that case might cut you it’s so sharp. This is trite, but it is a perfectly imperfect object if ever there were one.

This examples sports a very strong case with full bevels and very light surface wear on all surfaces, dated 1984. Its dial is an even cream tone, a non-rail, signed correctly 'T SWISS < 25 T'. All handset tritium is present and matches the dial. Original square or 'thick' font bezel. It comes on a date-matching 78360/501 bracelet. The calibre 3085 was serviced mid 2022.

This watch is modeled on a relatively large 7.7 inch wrist.