TO BE PRESENTED IN GENEVA NOVEMBER AUCTION 2023

Preview : November 1^st – 5^th

Opening hours : 10AM – 6PM

Antiquorum Genève SA

3 rue du Mont-Blanc

1201 Genève

Auction : November 5^th

Sunday November 5^th at 10AM – 1^st session

Sunday November 5^th at 2PM – 2^nd session

Hôtel Beau-Rivage – Salon de l’Impératrice

13 Quai du Mont-Blanc

1201 Genève

Former property of Doctor Gabriel Chevalley (1918-1990)

Doctor Gabriel Chevalley

Gabriel Chevalley is one of those men who lived through almost a century, not just passing through it but shaping it by his actions.

Born in Bex in 1918, son of the director of the salt mines (Salines de Bex), his passion for mountain climbing started early as by age fifteen he was already climbing the “Bloc Monstre” and the “Pierre Bessa” not far from his family home as well as the Dents de Morcle (2969m). After studying at the college de Saint Maurice during which he became very close friends with the author Maurice Chappaz, he joins the Swiss army during the Second World War serving 509 days combining his medical studies and mountain climbing (he climbs the Weisshorn, Bietschorn among many others and most notably in 1950 he accomplishes his first Himalayan expedition by conquering the Abi Garmin (7355m) with Dittert, Tissieres and Berril). In 1948, he joins the CICR (ICRC International Committee for the Red Cross) working as a doctor in Lebanon then in Pakistan.

He was the Swiss doctor who accompanied the two expeditions to mount Everest in 1952. Both in spring and autumn. Unavailable to foreign climbers until 1951, in 1952 the Tibetan government gave the Swiss the opportunity to attempt its climb to the top. As a member of the team of climbers on the spring expedition, he risked his life to help evacuate the South Col.  Amongst the amazing achievements made by the team, one other extraordinary event mentioned in his diary was the operation at 6000m of the Sherpa Ang Norbu who was suffering from a neck tumor. Creating an operating table with 6 crates, he was sedated and Dr Chevalley proceeded to open his neck, remove the tumor and close the wound. The next day the Sherpa was already back on his feet. As leader of the second expedition, he took on heavy responsibilities during the period of stubborn waiting in the middle of winter storms. Ultimately, it was thanks to the maps and passages discovered by the Swiss team and the Sherpas that allowed the 1953 British expedition to conquer the Everest led by Hillary and Norgay. The Telegram sent by the British to the Swiss team after their conquest clearly gives credit to their exploits with this now legendary phrase ” To you goes half the glory”.

The 1952 Swiss Everest Expedition

Rolex Ref. 6098, serial 846218

He was awarded this Rolex ref. 6098 by the manufacture for his involvement in these historic journeys. According to a Rolex advertisement in the Swiss foundation for Alpine Research published in 1953 (accompanied with the watch), Rolex equipped the 3 early 1952 Everest attempts by English, French and Swiss expeditions with 15 Rolex chronometer’s that we now know to be references 6098 as confirmed by the Rolex letter. With no traces of any other expeditions other than the Swiss, it seems more than likely that all 15 (maybe less) 6098’s were given to climbers only and not all team members wore them. We now know that most climbers wore 2 watches one on each wrist to test them during the expedition (as shown in some of the photos), we now know from talking with former family members that Rolex had equipped their wristwatches with 2 different types of oil to be tested under extreme conditions.
Amazingly the family conserved the letter they received from Rolex in 1953 confirming the return of both watches used during the expedition, as agreed (stamped on the back A7 and B7, we know that Norman Dyrenfurth, film maker of the 1952 fall expedition, had example B6) and the gift of the present watch in exchange.

After the expedition, he works at various hospitals (Loeche les Bains, Hospital Nestle and Lavey-les Bains. In 1958 he sets up his own practice in Bex where he served and lived until his retirement.

Rolex ref. 6098 & the Peruvian Andes expedition

Former property of Alberto Parodi (1907-1999)

The 1952 Peruvian Andes Expedition

Same story… different continent ! This Rolex was given to the Peruvian geologist Alberto Parodi for his successful ascent of Solimana (6323m) in 1952.

Alberto Parodi was born in 1907 in Puno, a town on Lake Titicaca in Peru where Father Costantino with his family had moved. Alberto studied in Puno at the “San Carlos” college and at the age of 20 he returned to Italy to study geology at the Milan Polytechnic.

After graduating he stayed in Italy as a valid geologist, he was hired by S.A.P.I.E. on 14 October 1937 with an open-ended contract, he arrived in Jubdo (Ethiopia) on 06 January 1938 and assumed command of the geo-mining exploration. At the same column and under his guidance, was assigned the young graduate Alfredo Pollini, who arrived with him in Africa, who joined him in geological and mining research.

Alberto and Alfredo worked on the alluvial prospecting of the Kapi hill and on the reactivation of the abandoned mine of Tullu Kapi. They carried out alluvial exploration of the Bir-Bir river basin and its left tributaries near Jubdo and similar exploration was carried out from the column in the catchment basin of the Uva and Kobara rivers right tributaries of the Bir-Bir.

On 15 October 1939 he was recalled to the officers’ school in Addis Ababa for military instruction which, for various reasons of study and work, he had not been able to complete. After completing the officer cadet course, he was called back to war as Second Lieutenant of the mountain artillery in the 140th battery of the LXXth Colonial Artillery Group under the 70th Brigade.

He made the Somaliland campaign and in March 1941 and, after trying to retreat, he had to surrender. Alberto was captured on April 19, 1941 in Dire Dawa and imprisoned in Eldoret (Camp 356) in Kenya, (P.O.W. 9592), with his colleagues Alfredo Pollini, Mario Maschio, Pasquale Zugno and Giuseppe Puliga.

Returning home at the end of 1946 he married Professor Eugenia Tamini (biologist at the University of Milan), his fiancée, who had been waiting for him. In 1947, due to the employment crisis in post-war Italy, he decided to move back to Peru where he became a university professor at the San Agustín University in Arequipa. Alberto specialized in Structural Geology and Volcanology and in this university he was Director of the school of Geology. Alberto’s wife also taught in the same university in the chair of Comparative Anatomy and Microbiology.

The 1952 international expedition to the Andes under the leadership of Piero Ghiglione, the well-known Italian climber carried out extensive mountain exploration in the Andes of Southern Peru in the summer of 1952 achieved in the company of the Austrian alpinist Mathias Rebitsch, the Swedish climber Anders Bolinder, the Peruvian geologist Alberto Parodi, and Felix Marx. The story of their climb is written in “The Mountain World” published in 1953 by the Swiss Foundation of Alpine Exploration.

The Italian Republic awarded Alberto, on 02 June 1965, with the signatures of Saragat and Moro, the honor of Official Knight of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Between 1955 and 1965, together with Italian mountaineers (Piero Gillon and Mario Fantin), he made several ascents on at least 20 volcanoes for his researches. Finally, almost blind, he wrote a work on Lake Titicaca on whose shores (Puno) he was born. He was an international consultant for several hydroelectric projects and Peruvian representative at the Smithsonian Institute of Vulcanology, presenting many projects on geothermal energy, until his death in 1999.

On the wrist of an artist :  Dominique Appia (1926-2017)

The “Day-Date” model was launched in 1956 and this specific reference 18239 in the late 1980’s. It is one of Rolex most coveted “classic” models – in opposition to the “sports” models. Known as the wristwatch worn by presidents, hence its nickname “President”, it was the first water-resistant and self-winding chronometer wristwatch to offer a modern calendar with an instantaneous day display, spelt out in full in a window on the dial, in addition to the date.

Exclusively crafted in precious metals, very few watch models come close to the stature, eminence and timelessness of the Rolex “Day-Date”. After a successful launch, the Rolex Day-Dates have been produced in a wide range of colour variations from lacquered, engraved or hard stone dials. Due to their high cost models with hard-stone dial, such as lapis, malachite or coral, are extremely rare. Indeed, due to the complexity of assembling wristwatches hard-stone dials, many examples encompass hairline cracks after being fitted to a watchcase.

This particular wristwatch is former property of a Swiss artist, Dominique Appia. Born in Geneva on July 29th 1926, his artistic vocation ran in the family, since his great-uncle was Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) was a famous architect and theorist of stage lighting and décor. After various jobs, from hotel bellboy to taxi driver, he learnt about photographic editing and printing, before persevering for 15 years as a draughtsman in an architect’s office, where he was confronted with the challenges of precision drawings and respect for proportions. He really started his artistic career at the age of 40, completely self-taught.

Zenith chronograph El Primero, unique piece

“ Heal women to cure the world” : Dr. Denis Mukwege (born in 1955)

Far from the explorers or artists adventures, Dr. Denis Mukwege is working the real world. He is the kind of man who is making a change today, right now. Born on March 1st 1955, in Belgian Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo), he is the third of nine children. His father was a Pentecostal minister.

Seeing the complications that women experienced during childbirth, especially when they have no access to specialist healthcare, he decided to study medicine. After graduating from the University of Burundi, in 1983, he started off his career being a pediatrician. Faced with women with major obstetric problems, he decided to study gynecology and obstetrics in France at the University of Angers from which he graduated in 1989. His education was mainly financed by the Swedish Pentecostal mission.

Then he returned to work at Lemera Hospital. During the First Congo War (1996-1997), he had to fled the Lemera massacre during which his patients and colleagues were killed. In 1999, he founded the Panzi Hopsital in Bukavu. At that time, Dr Mukwege was the only obstetrician-gynaecologist in the region. As the number of rape victims arriving at the gate of Panzi Hospital increased, Dr Mukwege realised that medical services alone would not solve the problem. “You can’t operate against violence,” he says, “you can only abolish it.” From doctor, he becomes a human right activist by trying to bring the topic to the attention of the UN and other international organizations, and to advocate that those responsible for sexual violence be brought to justice.

In September 2012, Mukwege gave a speech at the United Nations where he condemned the mass rape occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and criticized the Congolese government and other countries “for not doing enough to stop what he called ‘an unjust war that has used violence against women and rape as a strategy of war'”. A few weeks after,  five armed men invaded the compound of his house in Bukavu and held his family hostage at gunpoint. He survived the assassination attempt, thanks to the sacrifice of his friend and security guard, Joseph Bizimana, but fled with his family to Belgium for a short period of time. He became THE global advocate against rape as a weapon of war.

For more than 20 years this devastating war has torn through eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with horrifying levels of conflict-related sexual violence. Panzi Hospital has become the epicenter of care for tens of thousands of victims of sexual violence, and in response to this emergency Dr Mukwege and his team developed a particularly effective, holistic model of healing integrated in a one-stop-center within the hospital compound.

In 2018, together with the Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, Dr Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize for his “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

In August 2023, Zenith offered this El Primero chronograph to the Global Survivors Fund which was founded by Dr Mukwege and Nadia Murad.

The watch is engraved “unique piece” on the caseback due to the very specific color of the dial. It is presented still sealed with all the original accessories. There is no need to draw back the whole history of the Zenith El Primero. In 1969, Zenith was the first manufacture to launch a high frequency (36,000 vibrations per hour vs 19,800 vph of the Chronomatic and 21,600 vph of the Seiko 6139), fully integrated, automatic chronograph, the first with a running seconds hand and a 6.5 mm thickness.

With such a track record, it’s not surprising that this watch is being presented for charity: all proceeds will go to The Global Survivors Fund.