Vintage woman's watch found. Help, please.

[jaycee]

While sorting through my late mother's possessions my brother found this watch. So far as we know it originally belonged to her mother so could date from the 1920s or 1930s. As you can see there is no name on the dial (I gather this wasn't unusual) but the back is hinged and has Rolex markings on the inside and on the movement. Until today I had no idea this watch even existed!

Can anybody help with identifying it please, and is it even a real Rolex? Any help much appreciated.

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[77T]

1930’s ladies 9k gold Cushion case (s/n indicates 1932-1933)

If it was in working condition and cleaned up it would be a fine vintage piece to commemorate.

I didn’t see very much in TRF about these but a nice find.


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[CTech]

The hallmarks on the inside of the case yield more information to supplement the serial number date from 77T.

R.W.C. Ltd in the oval shield is the Rolex Watch Company sponsors mark.

The 9 and .375 show it is a 9 ct gold case.

The opposed, prone "F"s are the hallmark for the Glasgow Assay Office.

The d dates the case hallmarking from 1 July 1926 to the end of June 1927. The date code was changed on 1 July annually so the date letter covers two part years.

The 15 jewel Rolex Prima movement is consistent with production after 1926 so it looks like a nice example of a mid to late 1920s Rolex ladies 9 ct gold cocktail watch to me.

[77T]

I did find some info on the movement - it is likely a Rolex 600. In the ‘30’s Rolex did deal with Gruen and Aegler and later partnered with Aegler. Aegler made and marked their movements as Rolex.

Yours has a different shaped bridge plate but all other aspects are quite similar - bimetallic screw balance, Breguet hairspring and an identical 9.75 lignes movement to the Alpina 819, Gruen 819, Aegler/Rolex 600...

A link to the movement info: http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-...uswk&Rolex_600


A comparo photo - The Gruen version first, then yours (sharpened up).






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[77T]

Originally Posted by CTech

The d dates the case hallmarking from 1 July 1926 to the end of June 1927. The date code was changed on 1 July annually so the date letter covers two part years.



The 15 jewel Rolex Prima movement is consistent with production after 1926 so it looks like a nice example of a mid to late 1920s Rolex ladies 9 ct gold cocktail watch to me.

Im sure you have a good handle on the date of when Aegler may have made the movement. I have an idea of why the s/n indicates a later date than assay and wonder if you agree?

As the cases were made by an independent supplier for many different brands to insert the same size movement (Gruen for example). I believe they were hallmarked upon creation and submission for assay. Then the cases are stocked and sold to the brands upon demand. That’s why the assay letter doesn’t comport with the s/n.




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[southtexas]

Wow guys, well done on this one!


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[CTech]

I believe they were hallmarked upon creation and submission for assay. Then the cases are stocked and sold to the brands upon demand.

It would be good if we knew the sequence of case manufacture, hallmarking and distribution a bit better, but my understanding is that each case would have to be identified with the maker's or sponsor's mark (in this example R.W.C. Ltd) prior to sending it to the Assay Office, and so it would already have been assigned to Rolex at that point. If this is correct, I think that the requirement of having a maker's mark prior to the hallmarking process would stop the case manufacturer from having blank cases hallmarked and later allocating them to several different watch manufacturers.

My guess is that the manufacturer of the case identified them as Rolex cases, either with just the R.W.C. Ltd or with R.W.C. Ltd plus all the Rolex 7 World's Records script and then they were sent to the Assay Office for hallmarking.

I'm not sure if they could have been sent by the manufacturer of the case acting as agents for Rolex or whether they would have to have been sent by R.W.C. Ltd directly.

However it was done I think it is likely that any delay between the hallmark date and the serial number date is because Rolex would order a large number of cases at a time and then release them to jewelers over the next few years as demand required.

The serial number would be put on the case just prior to distribution to the jewelers, but I don't know whether that would refer to a complete watch or just an empty case because I think that it was still possible at that time for individual jewelers to assemble cases, movements, dials and hands on their premises. This is often quoted as the reason why there are a lot of watches of this period with either no dial markings or only a local jewelers name on the dial, but I don't know for sure whether this is true.

There are so many questions awaiting answers about this fascinating period of Rolex history so I'm hoping we might get definitive information at some point from people who actually know how this was done. Until then, a lot of what we think we know is conjecture and might be based on often repeated but incorrect Internet folklore.

[jaycee]

Thank you, everyone, for the really useful information you've been able to give me about this watch. Looks as if we've got a nice family heirloom.