Different Styles Available in
Vintage Rolex Prince
For all vintage watch
collectors, the early Rolex Prince models that were available during the 1928 till 1940s are all highly collectible and treasured watches. There were five different styles of the
vintage Rolex Prince. Each style was unique in some way or the other. Here is a
brief summary of each of those models:
The Classic Rolex Prince (Model 1343): It was one of the original styles that marked the introduction of
the Rolex Prince. It featured the standard rectangular case along with the dual
dial. It was available in 9k and 18k gold as well as in sterling silver and in steel.
The Brancard Rolex Prince: It
was also introduced at the same time as that of the Classic model, but featured
a more gorgeous design. 'Brancard' means stretcher
in French. It was made available in a two-tone 18k gold
configuration as well as gold and sterling silver known as Zebra case. However, by the 1930s, the
Brancard line was extended to include two more models 971U and 971A. The added
feature of these two models was the faceted end pieces. While the model 971U
was made available in gold and sterling silver, the model 971A was introduced
in two-tone 18k gold stripes all over the top of the case. This made it
popularly known as the “tiger stripe.” In the early 1930s, Rolex made even more
additions to the Brancard line. For instance, in 1934 it rolled out a
steel-only version of the Brancard. It had even offered a solid platinum option
in this line, which today is considered one of the most expensive Rolex
wristwatches.
The Railway Prince: The model
1527, popularly known as the Rolex Railway Prince, was introduced in 1935. It
had been so named for its stepped sides that looked just like a locomotive (See below)
The “Quarter Century
Club" Prince: It was a special line of Prince, customized for one of the
leading Canadian department store chains known as the Eaton company. The watch
was engraved with “¼ Century Club" along the perimeter of its top dial.
This made it a unique and great collectible vintage watch. The reason behind
its interesting name is that this watch had been given as a memento to the
employees of the Eaton company who had served Eaton for 25 years. It was indeed
a great way to acknowledge the association of people with the company. The case
back of every watch had the name and years of service of the individual
engraved on it. There are several kind of Rolex watches offered from Eaton. https://newvintage-watch.blogspot.com/2020/02/rolex-eaton.html
The Sporting Prince: It is
one of the rarest models of Rolex pocket watch. It was largely used during
athletic events--particularly golf. Its unique feature was its hunting case,
which once opened, would bring into action a spring loaded mechanism that
protected the movement from outside disturbances during the sporting events. Later,
the same model was even created as a wristwatch. Since, these models had been
produced in very limited numbers, they are really sought after by the rare
vintage watch collectors.
The Rolex Prince Heures
Sautantes (Rolex Prince Jump Hour) reference 1587:
In 1935, Rolex introduced the H.S. (Heures Sautantes) movement which
means jumping hours. All Rolex Prince models that were introduced with this
feature had a tiny aperture at the 12 o'clock position in place of the hour
hand. The aperture had a miniature wheel to display hours from 1 to 12. Its
working was quite simple. When the minute hand passed the 60-minute mark, the
wheel would turn with the hour mark jumping into the next hour display.
The Rolex Prince jump hour is
the watch that I have waited for 32 years. For many new watch collectors, the
Rolex Daytona, the Red Sea Dweller are the collectibles but a true watch
connoisseur will understand the values of the Vintage Rolex Prince Jump hour.
The jump hour watch includes a minute hand and digital number at 12 for the hour. This function was very rare for a 1930s watch and is very collectible as the number produced was small as it was not a very popular model then.
The Rolex Prince 'Jump Hour' was the worlds first true 'Digital' watch, in the sense, it featured an aperture window at the top of the dial, that had an hour indicator wheel. In other words, if you look at the Rolex Prince Jump Hour pictured above, you will notice the red "3". So the time on this watch was 3:52 and 46 seconds.
As the Rolex Prince is not an "Oyster" waterproof models, the dials tend to age resulting in the patina look. During the 1980s-1990s when everyone wants to have perfect dials, many of these watches were sent for reconditioning and repainting. To find a Rolex Prince Jump hour in original dial is a major challenge as well. Moreover, there were also unscrupulous watch dealers who wanted to make extra money by repainting the Gruen Jump Hour watch to Rolex.
According to a 1936 Rolex advertisement, this two-tone gold jump hour “doctor’s watch” was less than £40 brand new. Below watch is a classically Art Deco, the case reflects the lines of the high-speed trains of the day, hence the collector name “Railway.”
醫生錶呈長方形，結構較圓形錶複雜，為30年代出品，是不少勞力士收藏家夢寐以求的「金勞」，而且該錶沒有時針，為「跳時」醫生錶，透過上方正中的小窗口查看時間。更連盒收藏，「盒上印有勞力士的真皮盒」，屬非常難得的收藏。
https://www.watchviews.com/sponsors/watchbus/P155.pdf
鐘錶字典上說:「Doctor's Watch 指的是手錶面 盤上除了時分面盤外，另外還有一獨立分離秒針面 盤(換句話說，其錶面為Dual Dial 設計) ，可以方 便醫護人員測量脈搏的手錶。」無論中外，脈搏的 測量對醫師來說都是非常重要的事，因此早在懷 錶時代就有計時碼錶在面盤上特別標註了脈搏儀 (pulsometer)，壓下計時按鈕後量數三十下脈搏， 對照刻度數字得出每分鐘的脈搏數。廣義來說， 「所有附有脈搏儀功能的計時碼錶」也可以稱為醫 生錶。也有少數人將一些中心秒針設計、具有仔細 刻度標示的大面盤有同樣作用的手錶也稱為醫生 錶，筆者並不認同此一推論，因為若依此寬鬆的定 義，現代錶幾乎每一支手錶都可叫醫生錶，如此分 類也失去意義了。所以，以下我們的討論將只集中 在前兩項定義上。
即使脈搏儀早已出現在鐘錶面盤上，無論是懷 錶時代或手錶初現的20世紀初期，Doctor's Watch 顯然並未出現成為一種特別的稱呼，一直到1920 年代末， Rolex(勞力士)和Gruen(高路雲)共同採用 Hermann Aegler 所設計的長方形機芯，各自推出 Prince和Techni-Quadron這兩個款式，「醫生錶」 才逐漸真正成為一種特別款式類型手錶的名稱。
這兩款手錶最大的特色是擁有一個特別大的獨立秒 針面盤，同時代的其他腕錶即使有秒針顯示，面盤 也都很小不易準確計時。因此，Prince和Techni- Quadron一推出後就深受醫護人員的愛用，做為計 算脈搏的利器，這正是此款手錶後來被稱為「醫生 錶」 的主因。這類型腕錶和其它方形錶款還有一 個很大的不同，那就是時分錶盤的中心點並非位於 錶冠龍頭的水平線上，而是在其上方處，辨識性十 足，這也是促成「醫生錶」一詞深入一般大眾的因 素之一。事實上，不只醫師，其他許多需要精確計 數到秒的專業人員，如無線電技術員和工程師等， 也紛紛成為此一錶款的愛用者。
儘管醫生錶紅極一時，但由於整個大環境對方形 錶款的熱度迅速消退，勞力士的Prince在1940、50 年代左右停產，Gruen錶廠甚至在1958年倒閉了。 除了最具代表性的Rolex Prince和Gruen Techni- Quadron外，還有一些大約同時期也推出Doctor's Watch的錶廠。比如美國另一知名的Hamilton的 Seckron Doctor's Watch，以及Supreme的 Doctor's Watch等等不一而足。無人預料得到的是，無論是 Prince 或是Techni-Quadron古董錶，目前倒都是 鹹魚翻身，因為奇貨可居，在拍賣市場屢有高價出 現。
https://blog.xuite.net/schopaurio/hkblog/175552752-Gruen+高路雲+和+Rolex+勞力士
有一句俗話說什麼人養什麼鳥，然而，不同職業、不同階層的人戴的錶是不是也有些不同的取向呢？有時我會這麼想：潛水員戴潛水錶、徑賽選手戴計時碼錶、貴婦人戴珠寶錶、老闆戴金錶、軍人戴軍錶、飛行員戴飛行錶、船員戴航海錶、天文學家戴月相錶或天文錶???彷彿再自然不過，然而有些職業，比如說醫生該戴什麼錶呢？前些日子看了一只待售的Rolex Prince 錶款的介紹，說是又稱為 Doctor’s Watch (醫生錶)。向來都是醫生研究我們的病情，我們倒是不常注意過醫生們都戴些什麼錶呢？醫生真的戴所謂的 Doctor’s Watch 的例子大概不多，但醫生錶的歷史倒是值得錶迷們一探究竟。
鐘錶字典上說：doctor's watch 指的是手錶面盤上除了時分面盤外，另外還有一獨立分離秒針面盤 (換句話說，其錶面為Dual Dial 設計) ，可以方便醫護人員測量脈搏的手錶。也有人將一些中心秒針設計、具有仔細刻度標示的大面盤有同樣作用的手錶也稱為醫生錶。不過若依此定義，現代錶很多有這類秒針顯示的手錶幾乎都可以叫做醫生錶了。
據信Doctor's Watch 是一直到1920年代末， Rolex 勞力士和 Gruen 公司共同採用 Hermann Aegler 所設計的長方形機芯，分別各自推出Prince 和 Techni-Quadron 系列錶款之後，才逐漸真正成為一種特別款式類型手錶的名稱。
Rolex 大家應該是比較熟悉的，因此我們先來談談少為國人所知的 Gruen Watch Company。Gruen 最早是由德國人 Dietrich Gruen (1847-1911) 及其兒子 Fred 於1894 年創立於美國 Ohio 州的 Columbus，1921年 Gruen 在瑞士的 Biel 設立了很大的工廠叫 Precision Factory，因此常被誤解是一家瑞士公司。Gruen 在其短短數十年的製錶歷史裡 (1958年破產)(後來把牌子買去生產石英錶的已非同一間工廠)，製造了很多膾炙人口的好錶，包括 VeriThin、Pentagon 懷錶，Curvex 手錶以及最著名、後來被稱為醫生錶的 Techni-Quadron 手錶，被喻為美國有史以來最優良的錶廠之一。
Gruen 於1929年推出的 Techni-Quadron，其最大的特色是擁有一個特別大的獨立秒針面盤，而同時代的其他腕錶即使有秒針顯示，面盤也都很小不易準確計時 (有些甚至小到 2mm)。因此， 除了深受醫護人員愛用做為計算脈搏的利器外，Gruen公司也特別針對需要精確計數到秒的客戶，如無線電技術員和工程師來做宣傳廣告。研究 Gruen 歷史的專家 Paul Schliesser 指出，照嚴格的定義，除了Techni-Quadron 外，Gruen其他的方形錶款包括 Quadron 都不能算是 Doctor’s Watch。Techni-Quadron 和其他方形錶款最大的不同，在於其時分錶盤的中心點並非位於錶冠瓏頭的水平線上，而是在其上方處。
It is interesting to see the prices of the same watch in three different times 2008 (Christie's), 2012, 2016.
https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/rolex-a-very-fine-and-rare-18k-5130736-details.aspx
Sold for CHF22,000 in 2008
Watch sold for CHF 60,000 (Antiquorum) in 2012
atch sold for CHF46,250 (Philips) in 2016
In addition to the Railway Prince of Reference 1587, there is another version of the Rolex Prince (with Duo branding Bucherer's) photos borrowed from the internet forum. Please see the differences.
One step versus two steps cases
