Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-date ref. 18238 Special Order for General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar, Head of state, Commander in Chief, fed. Rep. of Nigeria

ROLEX, OYSTER PERPETUAL, DAY-DATE, REF. 18238, NIGERIA

ICONEEK price: 14’000.- CHF SOLD

Iconeek is proud to present here a very unusual and extremely rare, historically important version of the glamorous Rolex Day-Date with the coat of arms of Nigeria army, made circa 1995. The present watch was a gift from the General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, who became head of state in Nigeria on 9 June 1998 after the death of General Sani Abacha. In fact, General Abubakar is very famous for its devotion to re-establish an democratic state. Abubakar replaced or transferred the military administrators of most of the states, and instructed the new team to prepare for a smooth transition to democracy in May 1999. The elected president Olusegun Obasanjo required all former military administrators to retire from the military in June 1999.

It is interesting to notice that the dial is printed "Head of State, Commender in-chief of the Armed forces of nigeria", concentric to the coat of arms of Nigeria, as in 1993 he was named defense chief of staff by General Sani Abacha, who became Nigeria’s military ruler in that year.

This fine, water-resistant, self-winding, 18K yellow gold wristwatch with day, date, sweep center second and bracelet is fitted with a very special champagne dial bearing the coat of arms of Nigeria at 9h.

The 18K yellow gold tonneau-shaped case comes with a sapphire crystal and magnifying loup for the date, screw-down crown and case back engraved « compliments of General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar, Head of state, Commander in Chief, fed. Rep. of Nigeria ». The case no. W279976 and reference 18238 are deeply engraved between the lugs.

The watch is powered by a caliber 3155, mechanical, self-winding, certified chronometer. The watch comes with a fitted wooden presentation box. The 18K gold Rolex President bracelet with endlinks no. 55B and gold deployant clasp no. 8385 & W5. The bracelet has an approx. overall length of 180 mm. Dial, case, movement and bracelet are signed.

Extremely hard to find on the second hand market, Rolex wristwatches with coat of arms are very much sough after by collectors. A small batch of the recent large platinum Day-date with Nigeria coat of arms has appeared on the market.

Condition: 8.5/10, some light signs of wear in places, otherwise in good overall condition, movement ticking.