The Rolex Space-Dweller is one of the most mysterious watches in all of vintage Rolex. I’m always conflicted about pieces like this: When one looks at just the watch, it’s simply a Rolex Explorer reference 1016, but for one pesky line of text. But it’s the story that one line of text tells that makes the Space-Dweller reference 1016 so rare and special.

There’s a bit of an urban legend that the Rolex Space-Dweller was inspired by a 1963 visit to Japan by astronauts of Project Mercury, the U.S.’s first man-in-space program and Rolex sought to capitalize on this popularity by introduced a special edition of the Explorer, but with the “Space-Dweller” name instead of Explorer at 12 o’clock. The watch was released as a test to only the Japanese market shortly after the astronauts’ visit to Japan (though, it’s not entirely clear why Japan was chosen as opposed to say the United States — these were American astronauts after all).

That said, I’m not sure I (or anyone) has seen any real evidence for this story. So it remains just that – a myth.

But still, it’s so exciting that an example is up for auction at Christie’s Important Watches Auction in Hong Kong on July 13. Christie’s puts the estimate at $50,000 to $100,000. But with a watch as seldom seen as this, there’s no telling what it could hammer at.

Hodinkee spotted one back in 2016 listed by a dealer for $85,000. Antiquorum sold an example back in 2008 (2008!) for $48,000. Sotheby’s sold a few “Space-Dweller” dials for handsome sums back in 2008 as well. Since then, we know that at least a couple of these has made their way into a 1016 case.

See Christie’s Lot 2346 here