1967 White Gold King Midas, Limited Edition Genta Rolex, Asymmetric

WHY WE LOVE IT: Why we love the Midas Series of Rolex is widely known and verbosely written in our blog -- for a reason. In short: it is the elephant in the Rolex-room and many people try to not-see it -- the Rolex that was gifted; was owned by the Who-Is-Who.

The Midas series is probably the most iconic watch made in the 1960s and 1970s -- and probably holds this title up till today. If it is possible to distinguish a Nautilus from 50m distance, then you can easily spot a King Midas from at least 100m distance -- there is nothing similar or even close to it.

Rare and iconic --- one of just 144 masterpieces ever done: The Rolex King Midas in White Gold. And this is the real thing: A reference 9630 and not a ref 3580 Cellini!

And it is a quite early real things: Made in 1967. All stamps and engravings are sharp, visible and deep. The shape of this icon is as well unchanged and edges are razor sharp. Unique.

The King Midas series was designed by the master himself, Gerald Genta for Rolex as a response to Pateks asymetric Gilbert Albert line and produced by Rolex in a series limited to a total maximum of 1'000 pieces. Each piece was completely hand-made and the real production numbers never reached 1'000 pieces but remain less than 799 in total in ten years between 1963 and 1973 --- exactly 144 in white gold and the rest in yellow gold.

By the way: The KING MIDAS engraving on the flank of the case was not done on early models and started in the 300th of this series. So, the reason there is no engraving visible on this one is not because it was polished off, but there never was one.

In the Rolex Midas series each piece is numbered from 1 to 8XX and this is number 2XX in this series -- by the way, the Cellinis used the same numbering and simply proceeded the counting. Further than that, the King Midas series is the first limited series Rolex has ever done -- second one was the Rolex Beta21 reference 5100 Texano from 1970 to 1976 -- and the first Rolex that ever used Sapphire crystal.

This watch is so impressive, heavy (almost 200 grams), bold and iconic. Its character is second to none and you cannot compare to a regular nowadays Rolex. A real traffic stopper and a timepiece to wear when attending the watch club meeting --- one that will make an impression. A watch that transports a Meta message: Even when most are shy of it, I can wear a Rolex like this.

It is housing a very flat manual Rolex cal650, developed by Piguet (aka Piguet cal21 or Patek cal175 and to our understanding the most relevant manual caliber of all time -- see our blog post), but of course thats not the most relevant aspect as this watch is about its design and appearance and quite sure not about its technical features.

The condition of this watch is fantastic: Edges are sharp. Bracelet with just minimal signs of wear and no deformation or stretch. Very nice and flexible. One of a kind and probably the highest quality vintage Rolex made in this era!