Reference:6210: Difference between revisions

| Reported gold production

| 24 watches, cased or released in 1954

The 6210 was the gold-cased part of Rolex’s Kew A wristwatch program. Sources describe 136 certified movements, with 112 used in steel ref. 5056 Speedkings and 24 in gold 6210s. Christie's instead says 136 movements were submitted; James Dowling’s account, repeated by Hodinkee, and Vetroplastica give 145 submitted, 9 unsuccessful, and 136 certified. Those totals describe the wider test program, not 6210 production alone.

The movements were tested before they were cased. Christie's dates movement 4162 to 1948 and says it was cased and sold in 1954. Bonhams dates movement 4156’s Kew A pass to 6 April 1951; Uhrenkosmos also places the 6210 release in 1954. Auction listings date individual examples circa 1951 and circa 1955; those are lot estimates, not evidence of separate production runs or the endpoints of the 6210 series.

Vetroplastica lists 1949–1951 for both the steel 5056 and gold 6210, alongside the later casing date reported by Christie's and Dowling. Its table does not say whether the range dates movement production, testing, or finished watches.

Published accounts report 24 gold watches. Hodinkee attributes the number to James Dowling, who said Rolex confirmed production and case numbers in a letter; Christie's cites Dowling and Hess’s ''The Best of Time''. Specialist sites repeat the figure. The accessible sources report this correspondence but do not reproduce the Rolex records.

The 6210 is manual wind, with a 10½-ligne movement signed “Rolex Kew A Tested.” Christie’s calls the movement Cal. 10.5; Uhrenkosmos describes it as a selected Cal. 700; Vetroplastica says it uses a Cal. 700 base with some Cal. 720 components. Bonhams calls individual 6210 movements Cal. 720. The Movements page lists generic Cal. 720 as automatic; keep the auction label attached to its lot until factory records clarify the Kew movement name.

Bonhams’ 2024 watch has a reprinted dial. It reads “Rolex Oyster Chronometer” without “Observatory” or “Kew A Certificate.” Bonhams identifies it as a reprint, so it belongs under later dial condition rather than factory variants.

The catalogued diameter ranges from 34 to 35 mm. Christie's calls the case circular and water-resistant; Antiquorum describes a three-body case with an inverted bezel and concave lugs; Bonhams calls its examples tonneau-form. Catalogues differ in their case terminology and do not establish separate case designs. They describe a screw-down caseback and crown. Crystal material is not consistently reported.

Auction records mostly show the 6210 on leather. Koller’s 2025 listing describes a Bucherer gold bracelet as an alternative to a leather strap on one sale watch; factory supply and original fitment remain unproved. The cited records give no verified bracelet reference, end-link number, or clasp code.

Bonhams’ 2024 lot lists a Rolex box as an accompaniment. That record gives no evidence that the box was made for the 6210 or accompanied it at original sale.

The table lists six auction appearances through June 2026. Five case numbers are visible; Bonhams masks the last two digits in its 2018 record, so that lot may overlap with another sale. Koller’s 2025 catalogue says four examples had been offered; its 2026 listing says five before the current sale. Six listings do not establish six individual watches.

The numbers above are reported as case numbers. James Dowling’s 6210 is reported as case 97458, described in his letter as the fourth gold-cased watch. The five-digit numbers fall outside the six-digit ranges in generic serial charts. Published records do not map them to those charts.