Dating Rolex,Henry Hudson

[Subspecies]

As we all know many sites post dating charts and they vary sometimes quite considerably. Its not easy to know which is the best as it seems that none have been sourced directly from Rolex.
So, I came across this old sales post from 2008 for a 5513 and included in the sales pitch is a photo of a letter from Henry Hudson who is renowned for his help as as a Rolex employee in providing a huge amount of info about the Rolex milsubs issued to British forces. Now this is not about milsubs but dating Rolex watches. He clearly states that serial number 1778xxx was from early 1966 which throws many charts out of the window.
The wiser amongst us may have seen this before but its new to me.
I am aware that the seller in the link may have a'bit of a name' latterly but unless the rolex letter is faked then perhaps food for thought.

https://www.ukspecialistwatches.co.u...-vintage-1966/

[watchcrank]

I don't know about charts as there are many but did notice that case back was not dated, so probably changed later.

[Tools]

Charts are guesses and researched using case-back date stamps of known examples.

They are tools to use when you do not have any other information and should be used as an estimate, not an absolute.

[Subspecies]

Direct link to Rolex letter not working (for me) but is in general link above.

[mattedialdoc]

Originally Posted by Subspecies

As we all know many sites post dating charts and they vary sometimes quite considerably. Its not easy to know which is the best as it seems that none have been sourced directly from Rolex.

So, I came across this old sales post from 2008 for a 5513 and included in the sales pitch is a photo of a letter from Henry Hudson who is renowned for his help as as a Rolex employee in providing a huge amount of info about the Rolex milsubs issued to British forces. Now this is not about milsubs but dating Rolex watches. He clearly states that serial number 1778xxx was from early 1966 which throws many charts out of the window.

The wiser amongst us may have seen this before but its new to me.

I am aware that the seller in the link may have a'bit of a name' latterly but unless the rolex letter is faked then perhaps food for thought.



https://www.ukspecialistwatches.co.u...-vintage-1966/

Seems reasonable. My 1.90 mill 5513 MetersFirst has a 67 caseback.


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[R.W.T.]

I don't buy it unless he is going back to specific archival records for that specific watch...which most certainly do exist in Switzerland. As a blanket affair that serial is from

1968.

The watch has a ft. first matte dial. That's SURELY not early 1966. Other watches in the VRF serial list with close serials have IV 67 I 68 casebacks. Noting that theoretically casebacks could be made also in batches and not always matching the case serial range exactly, in that the case back was not stamped

at the time the watch was serial numbered and or completed. We don't know exactly how they did it but one would assume backs were made as needed and stamped. When a watch was being completed a back was installed from a group of backs. It's "close". They didn't worry about people getting exact dates because

as they told Dowling even when he asked about the mismatch of reference numbers 5512-5513..."no one is supposed to see in there but our watchmakers anyway". They know what they need to know from their own records.


Bexley has made mistakes and said things off the record that were proven unequivocally untrue before concerning normal consumer watches.



Military Subs are a different affair since the ones referred to as "military subs" are British issue in nature and they may or may not have unique batch lots and other variants specific to them.

But you see this type of marginal discrepancy is why Rolex in general refrains from saying anything about anything on record, because if someone is speaking about one thing, and something similar comes up about something that isn't exactly related, or a host of other potential situations, and the lines don't intersect...then everyone points fingers. They don't care to be in that position.
They know exACtly what they did, where and when. They don't concern themselves with the public's desire to know. They have the knowledge if THEY need it. It's a used watch otherwise.

Once again just my opinion...worth exactly the price paid.