{"title":"Rolex","description":"Rolex pocket watches and wristwatches. Observatory-grade precision, documented presentation pieces and a solid gold Oyster Perpetual chronometer, each researched, dated and confirmed running.","products":[{"product_id":"rolex-7-worlds-records-rolled-gold-open-face-sub-seconds-art-deco-44-7mm-1928","title":"'7 World's Records', a Sheffield Presentation, 1928","description":"\u003cp\u003eA genuine 1920s Rolex pocket watch, fully original and still running well, carrying a dated 1928 presentation from the office staff of one of Sheffield's oldest manufacturing houses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRolex is known today for wristwatches, but in the 1920s the Geneva firm still produced a small number of finely finished pocket watches, and this is a correct and complete example of the type. The firm began in London in 1905 as Wilsdorf \u0026amp; Davis, registered the Rolex name in 1908 and moved to Geneva in 1919, where Montres Rolex SA was formed in January 1920. The seven world's records named inside the back are the timing results Rolex advertised from January 1915, among them Kew certificates of 1913 and 1914. The dial is signed Rolex above the sub-seconds register, the nickel lever movement is signed Rolex 15 Jewels Swiss Made with fast\/slow (A\/R) regulation, and the inside of the case back carries the full Rolex cartouche: \"7 World's Records, Gold Medal, Geneva Suisse, Rolled Gold, Guaranteed to wear 10 years,\" with case number 50361. Dial, movement and case are all signed Rolex and belong together.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dial is the highlight: a silvered plate with a radiating guilloche sunburst, painted Arabic numerals and fine blued-steel Breguet hands. It shows light age spotting across the plate, most visible at the centre and around the sub-seconds, with no chips, cracks or flaking. Behind the bezel sits an excellent, unmarked crystal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat sets this piece apart is the case back. It is engraved: \"Presented to Robert Harris by the office staff of Wm. Whiteley \u0026amp; Sons Ltd as a mark of esteem, 23rd June 1928.\" William Whiteley \u0026amp; Sons of Sheffield, founded in 1760, is the oldest scissor and shear maker in the Western world and became a limited company only in 1920. This inscription does two things: it fixes the date of the watch precisely to 1928, and it ties it to a real person and a historic English firm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe case is rolled gold rather than solid. It winds smoothly, sets cleanly and runs well, and the case is bright with only minor wear at the hinge.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rolex","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54249597960531,"sku":"PW-0074","price":995.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/rolex-gold-filled-pocket-watch-1928-front.jpg?v=1783621314"},{"product_id":"prince-imperial-31-victoires-de-haute-precision-c-1930","title":"Prince Imperial, 31 Victoires de Haute Precision, c.1937","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Rolex Prince Imperial in stainless steel, its caseback stamped inside with 31 Victoires de Haute Précision, Genève Suisse: the count of precision records Rolex claimed when it was made. The salmon dial is clean, original and exceptional.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Prince Imperial carried the Prince name into Rolex's pocket watches, and this is its round form: a full chapter ring with the seconds register sunk at six, the whole dial a study in controlled proportion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dial is the exceptional thing about this example. The salmon lacquer is deep and even, the guilloché texture of the seconds register intact, the Roman numerals at twelve, three and nine sharp between their baton markers, the blued steel hands original and straight. Prince dials are fragile objects that have had ninety years to go wrong, to fade, to be repainted or replaced, and this one keeps its original finish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside the caseback Rolex stamped its house claim of the time, 31 Victoires de Haute Précision: the running count of precision records it claimed from timing trials such as Kew and Neuchâtel. The figure rose over the years, and 31 places this case in the later 1930s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe watch winds, sets and runs correctly, and it comes with its Albert curb-link chain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the caseback stamp is recorded in The Record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rolex","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54591950225747,"sku":"PW-0130","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/rolex-stainless-steel-pocket-watch-1_hero.jpg?v=1786758782"},{"product_id":"rolex-oyster-perpetual-6567-star-dial","title":"'Star' Dial Chronometer, German Market, c.1957","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe faceted star dial, its markers cut as three-pointed darts, on a solid gold Oyster Perpetual chronometer signed for the German market.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a full-size Oyster Perpetual from the second half of the 1950s, the period when Rolex had settled the self-winding chronometer into the shape it would keep for years: a 34mm Oyster case, a fluted gold bezel, a domed crystal standing proud of the gold. In yellow gold it has real presence on the wrist without being large, the fluting throwing light around the edge of the dial.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat sets this one apart is the dial. Rolex fitted most Oyster Perpetuals of the period with plain batons and simple arrowheads; this dial carries faceted star markers instead, three-pointed and diamond-cut, catching the light from a different angle at every quarter. They sit crisp and proud, and the silvered surface behind them has darkened only slightly and evenly with age. Nothing has been refinished or reprinted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen there is the line of German under the centre. Rolex printed the chronometer certification in the language of the market a watch was bound for, and this one left for Germany: Amtlich Geprüfter Chronometer, officially certified chronometer, in place of the English almost every other example carries. It is a small thing that fixes the watch to a time and a place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe case has worn honestly. The gold at the front carries the soft, even wear of decades on a wrist, and the smooth caseback its own map of fine surface marks, none of it polished away to chase a sharper edge. The signed Oyster crown screws down properly, and the watch winds and runs well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt comes today on a grey grained-leather strap with a Rolex buckle, a later pairing chosen to wear rather than to match the year. Above it sits a solid gold chronometer of the fluted-bezel Reference 6567, its dial original and still legible in the language it was sold in. The marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rolex","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55030502752595,"sku":"WW-0008","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/rolex-solid-gold-wristwatch-3_3bd5d927-2ffa-46b3-b1f9-edc859dedef7.jpg?v=1790196234"},{"product_id":"rolex-oysterquartz-day-date-19018-wood-dial","title":"Oysterquartz Day-Date in 18k Gold, Burl Wood Dial, c.1980","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Rolex Oyster Quartz Day-Date in 18k yellow gold, made around 1980, its burl wood dial set with applied gold batons in the angular integrated case Rolex drew for its own quartz calibre.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 19018 keeps everything that marks a Day-Date, the fluted gold bezel, the day spelled out at 12, the date under the cyclops, and sets it on a case of flat planes. The flanks are brushed, the bevels between them polished, and the case runs without a break into the bracelet. This example measures 36mm across and 42mm lug to lug, and the line where brushed meets polished is still sharp on every edge, the fluting on the bezel crisp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dial is burl wood under lacquer, dark at the rim and opening into amber figure and knots across the centre. Rolex dressed it the way it dressed its gold dials: applied gold batons, an applied gold coronet, a gold frame around the day window, and the signatures printed in gilt. The print reads cleanly across the grain, Oysterquartz Day-Date above the centre, Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified below it, T Swiss T at 6. The dark border at the rim has taken on a light clouding between 7 and 10, the lacquer settling with age; the figure and the print are untouched by it. The hands are gold batons with their tritium inserts aged to cream, with a gold centre seconds, and the day wheel is in English.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRolex offered wood on the mechanical Day-Date of the same years, the 18038 among them. On the 19018 the same material sits inside a squared case and an integrated bracelet, so the dial is framed in gold on every side, and the brushed planes of the case pick up the warm tone of the grain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bracelet follows the case. Its links are squared off to continue the case flanks, brushed on the outer rows and polished down the centre, and they are held with small screws rather than pins, a construction particular to the Day-Date version. It closes on a concealed clasp, opened by a gold coronet lever, so that from above the bracelet reads as one unbroken run of gold. The signed Twinlock crown screws down at 3.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside is the calibre 5055, Rolex's own quartz day-date movement, eleven jewels and certified as a chronometer, as the dial states. It was serviced in October 2026, and it runs with the day and date changing over as they should.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA red protective strip remains on the brushed caseback. The polished centre links of the bracelet carry fine hairlines from wear; the brushed links are clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rolex","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55720443248979,"sku":"WW-0017","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/rolex-oysterquartz-day-date-19018-wood-dial-1_ccb7c1c2-68c0-4602-91bf-244d75880095.jpg?v=1793648378"}],"url":"https:\/\/estatecollection.nl\/collections\/shop-by-maker-rolex.oembed","provider":"The Estate Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}