Rare 1930s Rolex Tudor ... a Wilsdorf Blunder Turned Blockbuster

This entry's little treasure is a Tudor dress watch from the 1930s. Gold filled bezel with "Staybrite" steel back. The case measures 37mm long by 26mm wide. It's powered by the 15 jewel Tudor Caliber 59 movement, built on Fontainmelon's Caliber 30 ebauche.

Impossible, you say. The Tudor watch wasn't invented until 1946, right?

Not so, as it turns out. Before Tiger Woods, before the "Rose" logo, there were the first generation Tudor watches. Not many folks know this, but Rolex registered the brand name "Tudor" way back in 1926, a full 20 years before the Tudor Watch Co. went into business. How do I know this? Because it's right on the Tudor website! (1)

It was kind of crazy time for Rolex back in the '20s ... a decade of prosperity. Company founder Hans Wilsdorf was bulk registering all kinds of brands -- some of them rather crazy -- in an Edisonian effort to get his hands on as many names as possible. In 1920 alone, he registered 18 brand names. Many of them were never used. My personal favorite is LON, which stood for League of Nations!

Then, Wilsdorf happened upon the name Tudor. The story goes it was one of his personal favorites because it paid homage to Britain's Tudor era. (Remember that Wilsdorf, born in Germany, had become a British citizen by this time). Rolex sat on the brand name for several years, but in the 1930s finally decided to do something with it. At least one watch historian (2) believes the brand represented an early version of what Tudor would become when it was launched on a wider scale in 1945 --- a sort of "starter watch" for the budget conscious person who would eventually "move up" to a Rolex. Here's an early version, made for Catanach, a respected jewelry firm in Australia:

Early Tudor, chrome case, quadrant dial. Notice
the signature logo, with the horizontal bar
of the "T" extending over the rest of the letters.
Image from www.tudorwatch.com.

Judging by how few of these we see today, the brand was not a success. Wilsdorf's timing couldn't have been worse, no pun intended. The United States was in the midst of the Great Depression, with the ripple effects being felt worldwide. Fast forward to 1946. It was now the perfect time to relaunch the brand. There was a huge market for watches, caused by pent up demand from World War II. Consumers needed a good watch, but at a good price because the prosperity of the 1950s was still a ways off. Enter Wilsdorf with his "new" Tudor, a starter watch guaranteed by the full faith and resources of Rolex.

But back to our example. The inside case back is signed "Handley," which at first glance appears suspect of a recasing.

However, we know that Rolex exported many of its watches in an unfinished state, to be cased at the country of ultimate sale. This was to save on import duties. Handley (full name J W Handley) was probably Australia's largest casemaker at the time, located in Melbourne. So I believe this is another watch that was exported to Australia like the Catanach mentioned above. I have every reason to believe this watch is in its original state.

With the case having wire lugs, I've attached an 18mm open-ended tan pigskin band to the watch. The watch has just been serviced (April 2016) by my watchmaker. It sets and winds perfectly, and keeps good time for a watch of this vintage. The crystal and crown I'm certain are replacements, but serve their function.

It's difficult to put a price on this watch. It's one of those pieces that's "rare," but as we all know, rarity alone does not determine value if there's not a demand for the watch. This is a watch that is obviously looking for a collector who specializes in early Tudor. I've seen one in a 9kt gold case priced at 875 British pounds, which is $1,268 in U.S. dollars. I believe that's a "wishful thinking" price, and I have a much more modest price in mind for this specimen. It's for sale on my website (click here) for $295.

Cheers, or should I say, g'day.

Bruce

Footnotes:

(1) http://www.tudorwatch.com/magazine/article/tudor-history-origins-1926-to-1949

(2) My source on this is the author at http://www.vintage-watches-collection.com/watch/rolex-watch/rolex-tudor-gold-cushion-very-early-1935/

Waltham 1917 Trench Watch with Gold Overlay Back

Hello friends and customers.

Another terrific acquisition this week. I was going through some collector's stuff, and spotted this Waltham military watch with yellow engine turned back covering a white metal case:

He sold it to me very reasonably because he thought it was a put-together case! However, I remembered in Stan Czubernat's Waltham book that there was an entire chapter devoted to these cases.

Sure enough, I got it home and it turns out to be an example like the one on page 98 of Stan's book, called the "Cadet." Stan believes that this case was designed by Ezra Fitch himself, then head of the Waltham Watch Co. Fitch was an avid wristwatch proponent and probably as responsible as anyone for bringing the man's wristwatch out of the novelty realm and into the mainstream. He held several case patents and worked closely with Charles Depollier in manufacturing the Waltham/Depollier Waterproof Watch, arguably the finest and today most sought after trench watch model of the Great War.

Anyway, Fitch had some rather eccentric ideas about the caseback of a watch, notably that a back made of gold (or at least the application of a gold layer) would better disperse the body heat of the wearer and thus protect the watch's movement from excessive heat. Experience has shown us that this concept is rather silly, but Fitch believed it fervently, and thus designed this case. To this day, we do not know who manufactured the case for Waltham, but it is 100 percent legitimate to this "Cadet" model, and the inside of the case back is stamped:

"WALTHAM

14KT GOLD ON

WHITE METAL"

and then the number 22432 is stamped below this, which I assume is a case serial number.

Upon further examination, we find that the movement's serial number of 20,955,090 is a 3/0-size Grade 361 movement with 7 jewels, manufactured in year 1917. This serial number definitely puts the watch in the range of the Great War. Whether it saw actual service or not is anyone's guess. Its wonderful condition suggests that it did not see service, but you never know. The watch runs in its current state, and even keeps respectable time, though I have no idea when it was last serviced.

The black dial with luminous numerals I thinks adds further value to the watch, since most of these I've seen have white dials. The dark condition of the luminous and the fact that a good portion of it is missing suggests to me that this is an original dial, and I for one would not have this dial refinished in a million years!

The crown I believe is also original.

Finding this watch is a great example of how having a little upper hand on knowledge can pay huge dividends when you're out searching for watches. I have never quite understood the reluctance of so many watch collectors to acquire reference books. They view it as an expense when in reality it is an investment that often times pays for itself many times over. The other nice thing about this watch is that it was obtained from an estate. Don't get me wrong; I love buying watches from other watch dealers. But some of the finest, most original-state watches I've acquired over the years are what I call "organic" watches. These are watches that have the least likely chance of being "molested" or "messed with." Like the "field-to-consumer" organic fruits and veggies, these watches haven't passed through multiple middlemen where all manner of molestation can occur ... re-casing, swapping dials/movements, etc. I am 99% sure that this watch is all original. Quite a feat for a timepiece nearly a century old! 

Stan's book places a value on this model of between $900 and $1,000. But keep in mind that is for a watch in fully restored condition, with the movement completely torn down, cleaned/oiled, and re-assembled. I conservatively believe the black dial would add another $100 to $200 to that figure.

This specimen is for sale on my website, and can be found here, until it sells of course!

Happy collecting!

Bruce

Outstanding Acquisition -- Gruen Pan American With Rare Sub Seconds

In 1943, the Gruen Watch Co. came out with a special watch for pilots and other flight personnel of Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am. At the time, Pan Am was one of the country's principal airlines, and the largest international carrier.

The watch dial had numerals for 1 through 12 as well as 13 through 24, so that time could easily be read in military time to distinguish a.m. from p.m.

While it was intended to do so, the model caught on with the general public, and several civilian models were made available after WWII. Over the next four years or so, Gruen came out with about 14 mens models and three women's models, presumably for female pilots and stewardesses (sorry PC-ers, but that's what they were called back then).

Recently, I had a chance to acquire this one:

The peculiar thing about this model is that it has sub seconds. All other Pan Am models had sweep seconds hands, and the efficacy is obvious: It is much easier for a pilot to keep track of seconds using a larger center sweep seconds hand. Why Gruen even made one with a sub-seconds is kind of a mystery, because it defeats the whole purpose of a watch designed for flight personnel!

The short production time of the Pan Am (1943-1949) makes most any genuine Pan American model hard to find. I emphasize genuine because numerous "put-together" Pan Ams surfact on the market regularly. Rarer still is the sub-second variety. Few of these models were ever sold, and fewer still survive today. Thus, the sub-seconds Pan Am has become a sort of holy grail for collectors of this sub genre.

The case for this model was not made by Wadsworth or Star, two of Gruen's usual case suppliers. Rather, it was imported from Switzerland. The bezel was made of base metal, while the screw-on back was made of Guildite, which was Gruen's terminology for stainless steel.

The caseback is stamped "GRUEN PANAMERICAN" on the outside and marked "Guildite" and "Switzerland" on the inside. This imported case was made for at least one other model (with the usual sweep seconds hand) and possibly others. It is 32mm diameter, and close to 40mm long, lug tip to lug tip. It was a very standard size men's wristwatch for its day, though is small by today's standards.

As you can tell by the profile image above, the case has pierced lugs. The dial and hands are original. Some of the luminous has fallen from the numerals and hands, very typical for a watch of this vintage. And look at the dial carefully. Notice anything about the luminous on the numbers? It's only only on the 18-24 on the outer ring, and 1-5 on the inner ring. The rest of the numbers are just black ink. This is because the night time hours were set up to glow in the dark ... a hand feature for a pilot. Also on the dial, you see one small scratch near the center post where no doubt some watchmaker was careless removing the hands. But overall a very nice original dial, and I wouldn't refinish it in a million years.

The engine on this model is the Grade 420, an 11.5-ligne movement that began production in 1942. Normally, you would find a Grade 420SS in this watch, the primary movement used in Pan Am series.

Overall, I would rate this specimen a very good, a solid 70 to 75 on a scale of 100, with 100 being new old stock. There is some pitting on the bezel, which is consistent with a watch that was used but not abused by its original owner. The watch was (and is) in good running order when I received it, and is keeping time to the minute within a 24-hour period. Thus, I have not had the watch serviced. This watch came out of an estate, and I am confident it is 100 percent original, and not put together from parts.

I have several Pan Ams in my collection, but this is the first sub-seconds model I have ever acquired. This is one of those "must-have" watches for any serious collector of Gruen wristwatches, especially the Pan Am series.

This specimen is for sale on my website, and can be found here, until it sells of course!