Platinum vintage Rolex - were they only special order or?

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Does anyone know much about vintage platinum Rolex?

I've never seen them in a vintage advertisement, can't remember seeing them on a price list (not that I've looked at many), and was (very sadly) not born in time to wonder around a Rolex AD in which there were watches for sale

On Chrono24 (not a perfect source but probably quite useful for this) they only seem to be from the 90s on, but we know that much older ones exist:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=...AAAAAdAAAAABAD


Even now they are rare beasties - as an example, they constitute only 0.8% of Rolexes on Chrono24.

Nonetheless, they have been in adverts, and are on the website and price lists (unlike some gemset models).


So, any more info? Presumably to order one you had to speak to your AD or even the central office in your country? Would be fascinating to see them in a period ad...