Financial Times: Gary Shteyngart Mentions Eric Wind Sourcing His Vintage Rolex Explorer 1016

Kate Youde recently spoke with Gary Shteyngart on his watch collection for Financial Times. Within the article, Shteyngart includes his Rolex Explorer 1016 with Gilt Exclamation dial.

“Shteyngart wore this vintage Rolex during a food tour of Montreal, one of his last trips with a friend who has since died from cancer. “That watch marked that occasion, that wonderful respite in the middle of his declining health where we lived the way we always did — in this very outrageous gourmand fashion,” he says. The writer, who was a consultant on US drama series Succession, bought the stainless steel piece from vintage watch dealer Eric Wind. It has an “exclamation point” dial, meaning there is a dot under the 6 to show the lume was made with the then new tritium, a less radioactive alternative to radium.

Shteyngart likens the gilt dial to “a soup of ink”. “When I look at it, it’s like looking into eternity, which is interesting because I associate it with a friend who passed,” he says.”

https://www.ft.com/content/e9ec8dbe-7021-4d05-b735-bcf638f54934