British army officer and renowned mountaineer Tony sterilizer Aube was the first man to reach two mountains above 25,000 feet. Phillips will always be the auction house’s new platform, designed to “provide the best collectors of replica watches with private sales planning, programming, private sales, exhibitions, and innovative partnerships”- a move associated with the classic car market, where many truly top dollar examples such as the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO are offered through private sales. The Rolex Explorer 6105 is expected to be sold at a bargain price, which could be much higher if it piqued collectors’ interest.
Streather was given the fake watch by Rolex in 1955 when he was going to climb Kangchenjunga, one of the world’s highest peaks, located on the border of Nepal and India. He had scaled K2, the world’s second-highest peak, in 1953, the same year Sir Edmund Hillary, whose feat encouraged the Explorer, famously conquered Mt. Everest.
Leather, who later reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army’s famed Gloucestershire Regiment, died last year at the age of 92, and the watch now comes from his estate. Leather wore this ref. 6105 Explorer on the historic climb, proving Rolex’s claims about its reliability, and helping to establish the brand as the pinnacle of luxury sports watchmakers.
“Tony Streather was an amazing man,” says James Marks, Phillips’ International Specialist and Director of Watches. “His Rolex 6150 Explorer is a particular piece of history for the brand. Phillips Perpetual is proud to present the watch worn by Streather
In the 1960s, while furthering this military career, Streather was given a NATO strap for the replica watch which is now featured on it to this day. This historically meaningful replica Rolex Explorer also comes accompanied by an assortment of Streather memorabilia, which surely adds to its appeal in our mind and provides context for an important timepiece that should probably be in a museum.