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powerfunk · 30 August 2020, 02:46 PM

This is my attempt to list every discontinued model name that has appeared on a Rolex watch. Often when old/random Rolex model names are brought up online, people mention watches released under the standalone Oyster brand (like Essex, Lincoln, Edison, Grenfell, Lipton, Lady Dudley, Junior Sport, Raleigh, Commander, Recorda, Chester, Regent, Shipmate, and Pioneer). Here I will focus strictly on proper Rolexes.

I don't really consider movement designations to be model names (like Chronometer, Observatory, Extra/Ultra Prima, Standard, Anti-and Precision) so I won't include those.

Rolex trademarked tons of names that they never used and I'm only including ones I could find pics of. If anyone knows of any others I'm forgetting, please let me know! Here's the list of 50+ discontinued Rolex model names that I could find. They're in alphabetical order except when it makes sense to mention models together:

Air-Tiger, Air-Giant, and Air-Lion
Rolex tried 4 "Air" names beginning in the late 1940's, but only "Air-King" stuck.

Air-King-Date and Explorer Date
Ref. 5700 (smooth bezel) and 5701 (fluted bezel) were released under both the "Air-King-Date" and "Explorer-Date" names. These are some of the only Rolexes with dates that change over slowly from about 9pm-2am instead of clicking cleanly around midnight.

Army

Athlete
The vast majority of Oyster cases have a similar/standard sort of lug shape, but the Athlete has distinctive straight lugs.

Campbell
Named for one of Rolex's first official ambassadors, Sir Malcolm Campbell. Campbell once simultaneously held the land speed and water speed records.

Centregraph and Zerographe
The Zerographe/Centregraph was a monopusher chronograph made in 1937. It was quickly discontinued and never reached serial production, which is bizarre because Rolex clearly put a lot of effort into it as it had Rolex's first in-house (but still not manufacture) chronograph movement and Rolex's first rotating bezel. Perhaps patent infringement issues were involved, as the very similar (and very patented) Weems Watch by Longines debuted around the same time, and some later Centregraphs and Zerographs were made minus the rotating bezel. Rolex also put the name "Centregraph" on a few plain-Jane Oyster Perpetuals for some reason.

Clive

Commando
Supposedly this was originally only available at US military bases in 1969, and later some appeared for sale at Abercrombie & Fitch stores in 1972. The fat hands of the 6429 are pretty sweet.

Corvette

Drake

Dustproof
I'm not entirely sure that "Dustproof" was meant as a model name rather than some sort of designation. Interestingly, the word "Oyster" never appears on a Dustproof even though most of them are Oyster models.

Elegante

Ellsworth

Everest
Rolex toyed with the "Everest" moniker before the more successful "Explorer" name took off.

Falcon

Firefly

GMT-Master
Obviously the GMT-Master II is still going strong, but technically GMT-Master was a different model name. Ref. 16700 was the final GMT-Master.

Hurricane

Imperial

King Midas and Queen Midas
Gerald Genta designed the King Midas, and it had 3 firsts for Rolex: a sapphire crystal, a hidden clasp, and an integrated bracelet. Elvis wore one. There are some ladies' versions too, and the Queen Midas isn't just a cute nickname--it's written on the clasp. The later Midases were considered part of the Cellini collection.

Ladydate

Leigh

Majestic and Seaforth
These watches were sometimes advertised together; they're the same thing except the Seaforth has a seconds subdial. The Majestic cost slightly more; having a center seconds hand was considered a feature back then. Many of these models are marked "Observatory."

Marconi
Marconi was mostly an early sub-brand of Rolex, and many Marconi watches had Rolex improperly painted on much later. However, at least some Rolex watches were legitimately released with Marconi as the model name.

Meritus

Metropolitan

Monometer
A short-lived alternative name for the first Turn-O-Graphs.

Orchid
This name was used for decades on various small gold ladies' watches, often with wacky shapes.

Oyster
While the Oyster brand is obviously still hugely important to Rolex, they no longer use "Oyster" as a standalone model name like they used to.

Oysterdate

Oysterquartz
"Oysterquartz" was more of a product line than a model name per se, but I feel like it's worth mentioning. The Oysterquartz Day-Date and Oysterquartz Datejust were in the Rolex catalog from the late 1970's until the early 2000's. Some of the first OQ Datejusts said "Datejust" at the top and "Oysterquartz" at the bottom, instead of the more common "Oysterquartz Datejust" at the top with chronometer text at the bottom.

Pall Mall

Prince
Prince may have been the first model name Wilsdorf ever put on a watch; in the beginning he was just focusing on getting the word "Rolex" out there.

Prince wristwatches were made from the 1920's-1940's. Rolex revived the Prince model in the early 2000's and gave it a clear caseback; it remained an option on Rolex.com as late as 2015.

Princess
Princess never actually appeared on a dial without "Sporting" preceding it, but it was clearly used by Rolex as a distinct model, including variants like the 8 Facets, Trapeze, Glayola, Egyptian, Lotus, Rochettina, and Bouts Arrondis (Rounded Edge). Other model names from the 1930's that never appeared on a dial include Dauphine, Duchess, Marquis and Queen.

Prince Elegant, Prince Elegante, Prince Royal, and Prince Imperial
Rolex apparently tried several variants of the Prince name, sometimes even on pocket watches. The Prince was known as the "doctor's watch" because of its relatively easy-to-read, large seconds subdial. This was before center seconds hands were common, and the minute/hour hands did not overlap at all with the seconds area (except on the Prince Elegant/Elegante models). Prince Brancard, Prince Railway, and Prince Classic are other designations that Rolex sometimes used in advertising, though I don't believe those names ever appeared on a dial. The unique Prince watches with center seconds are sometimes referred to as "Prince Aerodynamic" but I don't think that name appeared on a dial, either.

Sporting Prince and Sporting Princess
A portable fold-up watch was called a "travel watch" when marketed to men and a "purse watch" when marketed to women. Rolex apparently made a few wristwatches with "Sporting Princess" on the dial, too.

Royal, Royalite, and Royal Giant
Rolex threw the word "Royal" on a lot of entry-level manual-wind references with seconds subdials in the 1930's and 1940's. Royalites, meanwhile, almost always had center seconds. By the 1950's Rolex had apparently dropped the Royalite moniker, and the Royal kept on trucking for another decade or so (with center seconds now). I believe most Royals and Royalites are between 30 and 32mm wide. Some later Royals were 34mm, including the rare Royal Giant. I suppose it's worth mentioning that Tudor released an Asia-only line of Royal watches in 2020.

Scientific

Skyrocket

Space-Dweller
Short-lived Explorer alternative.

Speed

Speedking and Speedking Elegant
The "Speedking" moniker appeared on several manual-wind 30mm references from the 1940's-1960's. The "Speedking Elegant" name only briefly appeared on the 33mm reference 4365, which was also the first reference to be named "Air-King." Air-King clearly won that marketing battle.

Sport and Sporting Model

Submarine and Aqua
The Rolex Oyster wasn't the first waterproof wristwatch, just the first commercially successful/viable one. The Submarine (a.k.a. "Aqua") is a hermetic watch; several other brands made similar waterproof watches in the early 1920's. It seems Wilsdorf was later considering using Aqua as a standalone alternative to the Oyster brand; there are even some "Aqua Patent" crowns. "Aqua" most frequently appears on dials co-branded by Solar, the watch brand of Eaton's (a Canadian department store). Indian retailer names like P. Orr & Sons and Lund & Blockley can be found on other Aquas.

Transcontinental
The Datejust Transcontinental (ref. 6602, circa 1957) is exceedingly rare; it's the only Rolex ever made with a 12-hour rotating bezel. It's basically a Turn-O-Graph with a different bezel. According to an old forum rumor, the founder of Delta Airlines owned one.

Turn-O-Graph
This iconic model lasted from the early 1950's until 2014 or so, but only the first and last generations of Turn-O-Graph have it written on the dial.

Tru-Beat
This model was designed to only tick once per second so doctors could easily count pulses. Nowadays most of the ones left have a broken stop-seconds complication, in which case they "sweep" like a normal Rolex.

Verislim and Veriflat

Wellington

If you see something else on a dial (like Asprey, Astrua, Verga, Beyer, etc.) it's possible it could be a retailer co-branding rather than a model name. Thanks for reading!

crowncollection · 30 August 2020, 08:39 PM

Great post again cheers

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powerfunk · 31 August 2020, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerfunk

Anti-and Precision

Whoops, I meant "Anti-Magnetique and Precision."

Quote:

Originally Posted by crowncollection

Great post again cheers

Thank you

mackychase · 31 August 2020, 12:56 AM

Awesome post! Thanks!

It's really fun to see how some of these models' characteristics trickled down to Tudor.

Xeramic · 18 October 2020, 12:40 AM

Hi,

a huge work, well done - doesn't get the deserved attention.

Some more co-names:
Viceroy
Victory
Douglas (unknown, but have a catalog picture)
Sub-Aqua (not only Submarine or Aqua)
Unicorn

Greetings,
Xeramic

powerfunk · 18 October 2020, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeramic

Hi,

a huge work, well done - doesn't get the deserved attention.

Some more co-names:
Viceroy
Victory
Douglas (unknown, but have a catalog picture)
Sub-Aqua (not only Submarine or Aqua)
Unicorn

Greetings,
Xeramic

Hey thanks! Good call, I'm not sure how I forgot the Victory and Viceroy. I'd never heard of the Douglas or Sub-Aqua; if you can find that pic of the Douglas that'd be great! I was aware of Unicorns made under the Oyster brand and as a standalone brand but if you have any pics of a legit "Rolex Unicorn" that'd be awesome too!

Victory:

Viceroy:

Sub-Aqua:

Xeramic · 18 October 2020, 03:33 AM

Here's a Rolex Unicorn (seen with Rolex Watch Co. as well as with Rolex only, 1920s):
b8c6b16c-32f6-467e-828e-8d97b7840810.jpg

52221a85-fe7e-4c7e-a5b8-744034cbfd25.jpg

And the ad (about 1947) for the Douglas:
1947_compressed.jpg

Best,
Xeramic

powerfunk · 18 October 2020, 04:08 AM

Awesome stuff, thanks Xeramic!

Xeramic · 19 October 2020, 06:34 AM

You're welcome - thank goes to you for your effort on this topic :)

Greetings,
Xeramic

Jackie Daytona · 19 October 2020, 08:24 AM

Cool stuff. Thank you all for sharing.

powerfunk · 19 November 2020, 01:33 AM

My goodness, how could I possibly forget the world-famous Rite-Time:

keltzar · 21 November 2020, 10:52 AM

Very cool. I have forgotten all about the short run pieces like the tru-beat.

My friend sold his Space Dweller 2 years ago. He took a hit beause he had the watch dial refinished by Rolex at the local rolex service centre... by Rolex at their suggestion ...in the 1990s.

He has since misplaced the paperwork... and had to sell it on the basis the dial was refinished aftermarket.

powerfunk · 23 November 2020, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keltzar

watch dial refinished by Rolex at the local rolex service centre... by Rolex

Interesting. Was that in the Philippines by any chance? I've heard that the Manila RSC used to refinish dials in the past but I hadn't heard of any other RSC's doing that.

TheVTCGuy · 25 November 2020, 05:08 AM

Wow... I had no idea there were so many discontinued names. Amazing! It kind of makes you wonder, 50, 60, 70 years or more from now will “Daytona” and “Submariner” and “Explorer” still be around?

spoilsofwar01 · 25 November 2020, 06:31 AM

Some real gems, many thanks for sharing

Xeramic · 14 December 2020, 10:02 AM

Found another one: Rolex Windsor!

Pics from an eBay auction. A bit an unusual piece, case marked as Windsor only and the movement as Rolex just on the dial side, but looks legit:

powerfunk · 14 December 2020, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeramic

Found another one: Rolex Windsor!

Nice, thanks for sharing! I'd be skeptical of that piece if it didn't include a special Rolex Windsor box. I'll be darned:

Edit: Although now that I look closer, does the text say "A Rolex from Windsor?" In that case maybe Windsor was a retailer.

Xeramic · 15 December 2020, 02:47 AM

No, it says "A Rolex product" (that's also what the seller states):

powerfunk · 15 December 2020, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeramic

No, it says "A Rolex product" (that's also what the seller states):

Interesting, well that settles it then. The fact that they had an entire marketing vision for this model ("Beauty, Efficiency, and Style") and its own box (similar to the Wellington) makes me surprised it's not a model anyone seems to know about!

77T · 15 December 2020, 12:30 PM

Maybe when George V changed the reigning UK monarch’s name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor, Hans was inspired. Of course that happened in 1917 and the Windsor seems 1930’s.

The cal. 59 inside it would mean for Canadian export? Seems the 15 & 17 jewel movements were all inside Canadian models.

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EdRol · 18 December 2020, 05:11 AM