French cased rolex

[J@VIER]

Dear members, I would like to know your opinion regarding this.

It is widely known that Rolex and other swiss brands like Omega, Philippe Patek... during the gold embargo set by french government during the WW2 postwar years, used to send only movements and dials to France. Rolex gold watches where then often cased in non oyster gold french cases. A Perpetual incrtiption in the dial with no oyster reference in it was indicating that singulatity. The reason behind that seems to be that Oyster gold swiss cases were very expensive to export from Switzerland to France due to the high import taxes aplied to gold. These taxes could have caused a high french market loss for gold models.

That trick helped these brands to avoid the market loss in that country. Some speculate that some swiss laws ("Made in Switzerland") were violated by that practique but i dont want to enter to the legal nuances.

From my point of view these watches are part of history, french and rolex history, and despite their rareness, singularity and being the product of the political postwar french scenario unfortunatelly they are highly infravalued in the collector market in comparision to their swiis gold cased counterparts. I'd like to analize the reasons behind that.


Authenticity?

There are many evidences that point to the fact that these watches are authentic and were distributed by rolex in france.
I attach the picture of two french cased models (perpetulas) and a commercial rolex advertisement that evidence that rolex was commercializing these french cased models in france during postwar.

Gold case quality?
As far as i've been told some french case quialities are at least equal or sometimes even better than swiss counterparts.

The unique reason i can find behind is again in the collector's mindkind.
The fact to own a 100ç% swiss made case rolex, (but with simlar movement and dials ) despite their massive abundance in some models, seems to overcome in great terms the historical singularities and rareness of the french counterparts.

Any suggestions/debate will be welcome.



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[Dan S]

Collector preference ("mindkind") is 99% of the value of any collectible object, so this analysis seems pointless. This is reflected in the fact that there is really no rational reason for the relative values of the various Rolex vintage references overall. Locally cased watches from other brands (e.g. Omega, Longines, etc.) are also not quite as desirable as fully Swiss examples.

[J@VIER]

Thaks for your response!
I agree with you that the collector preference determines in a high degree the object’s value.
But on the other hand i believe that collector preference is related to the desire of getting that object and therefore i believe that rational attributes like autenticity,uniqueiness or singularity, quality and an infinite portfolio of other particular characteristics are important there. But probably you are right about the fact that also some degree of irrationality may be behind.

[Nick9]

My opinion: These are as much Rolex as the Swiss cased watches. Same with American cased Rolexes.

I’m equally sure from personal experience that in general the collector market for these is much less strong.

That doesn’t take anything away from the watches you are concerned with. It’s about the personal preferences of a collector, and those vary.

[J@VIER]

Thanks!

[Incroyable12]

The relative lack of interest in French cased watches is a bit strange.

By all accounts they are original cases and are arguably more rare and design forward than the factory examples.

If anything high grade French cased watches are sort of the final frontier in high end vintage watches now that everything from Piaget to Chopard have been "rediscovered" by dealers and collectors looking for a bargain.

If you don't necessarily care about the collector groupthink there are some wonderful bargains for AP, VC and even PP in French cases although they're also not easy to find.

[joli160]

I’d never buy one, swiss hall marks only for me

[TuRo]

We have our go-to Countries for things....same with cars....French Citroen SM (tied up with much engineering under the body and Maserati engine) is a beautiful car to behold - but cheap(ish) to buy as modest following! Same with Venturi's, Early 70-90 Alpines....

[Incroyable12]

I think if someone collected prime examples and published a book about them there'd be a big bump in the market.

Many of the good examples are almost like jewelry.