'7 World's Records', a Sheffield Presentation, 1928
Rolex 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 & 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.
The 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.
What sets this piece apart is the case back. It is engraved: "Presented to Robert Harris by the office staff of Wm. Whiteley & Sons Ltd as a mark of esteem, 23rd June 1928." William Whiteley & 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.
The 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.
