I · The Dealer Clock/II · The Design/III · The Collector's Piece/IV · Acquisition
Room I · The Dealer Clock
Made for the counter, never for sale
Through the 1970s and 1980s Rolex supplied its authorised retailers with a small number of desk clocks to sit on the counter beside the watches.
This is one of those clocks. A genuine Rolex concessionaire piece, Reference 455, individually numbered on the base as No. 1212, dating from circa 1985. It is complete and in working order.
This is one of those clocks. A genuine Rolex concessionaire piece, Reference 455, individually numbered on the base as No. 1212, dating from circa 1985. It is complete and in working order.
Room II · The Design
Every Rolex cue, carried from wrist to desk
The bezel is a notched gilt ring around a lacquered insert, the sports-watch bezel carried to desk scale. The dial and the insert share a warm brown root figuring in wood-effect lacquer, a nod to the brown dial and bezel of the gold GMT-Master. A cyclops lens sits over the date at three o'clock. The hands are the Mercedes set from the sports watches, the markers applied and luminous, and the dial is signed in gilt: ROLEX, QUARTZ, TIME TO THE SECOND.
The case is a tapering drum of reeded gold-plated brass, heavy in the hand and made to catch the light. Behind the dial is a Swiss quartz clock calibre with centre seconds and date. The dial is signed and the case numbered.
The case is a tapering drum of reeded gold-plated brass, heavy in the hand and made to catch the light. Behind the dial is a Swiss quartz clock calibre with centre seconds and date. The dial is signed and the case numbered.
Room III · The Collector's Piece
From showroom to shelf
On a desk it does something a watch cannot. It carries the whole visual language of Rolex at a scale you can read across a room, and it comes from the era when Rolex made its clocks for the people who sold the watches rather than the people who bought them.
Case
Very Good
Gold-plated brass, bright and presentable; reeded band and coin-edge bezel with minor handling marks; the green felt pads on the base rim are worn and frayed at the edges.
Dial
Excellent
Wood-effect root dial clean and even; gilt ROLEX / QUARTZ / TIME TO THE SECOND printing crisp; applied luminous markers intact.
Hands
Very Good
Luminous fill on the minute hand aged and finely crazed, darker towards the centre; hour and seconds hands intact.
Movement
Excellent
Swiss quartz, centre-seconds with date; running.
Crystal
Excellent
Domed crystal with cyclops magnifier, clear; no chips or cracks noted.
Setting
Set and adjusted from the movement (no crown); STOP hack lever and fine regulator present.
Accessories
No box or papers.
- Maker
- Rolex
- Model
- 'Time to the Second' desk clock, Reference 455 (No. 1212)
- Circa
- 1985
- Case
- Gilt brass (gold-plated), tapered reeded drum with coin-edge bezel
- Diameter
- 119 mm (height approx. 95 mm)
- Dial
- Wood-effect / root, gilt signed, applied luminous markers, Mercedes hands
- Movement
- Swiss quartz, centre-seconds and date, calibre 8035
- Functions
- Hours, minutes, centre seconds, date with cyclops
- Crystal
- Domed acrylic with cyclops magnifier
- Country
- Switzerland
- Signed
- Dial; case numbered
The Estate Collection
Room IV · Acquisition
€15.500
We'd love to discuss this piece with you.
Rolex
€15.500
Enquiry
Rolex Desk Clock, Ref. 455, c.1985
×