Well, this was the watch that put Rolex on the horological map. Launched in 1926, it was the first mass produced water and dust proof watch; it was said Hans Wilsdorf was watching a waiter trying to prise open an Oyster when he decided on the name…. Bucherer, now owned by Rolex, were the first jeweller to formally stock Rolex. In the 20’s and 30’s most watches had their dials signed by the retailer (Asprey, Harrods and of course Bucherer).
This is the larger size at 32mm across excluding the winding crown. The solid 14ct gold (yellow) case is in overall very good condition with some mild tarnishing and scratches and a couple of minor dings on the outside case back. It also a genuine ‘Patent Oyster’ gold screw down winding crown (many come with generic crowns). The Rolex ‘Crown’ was only registered in 1943. The champagne Rolex signed dial is again in very good condition. The black painted Arabic hour numbers, railway line minute markers, Sub-Second dial and blued steel hands create a stunningly simple look. We believe this dial is untouched and there’s the remains of writing just above the sub-second. Sadly we can’t read this but assume it said Rolex Oyster. The original Rolex signed manual wind movement is in excellent condition and has just been serviced by our professional watchmaker (whilst the movement is fairly robust it will gain/lose 2 minutes/day and we wouldn’t recommend this for anything other than special occasions). It is the highest quality for the time with the ‘Timed at 6 Positions’ engraving meaning it was tested in 6 different positions and also tested for all climates (watches set for a cold European climate behaved badly in hot humid climates) The watch sits on a used dark brown crocodile skin skin strap with gold plated buckle.
We will give a 12 month guarantee on the movement and just to stress again this isn’t an everyday watch.
