Rolex Quarter century club

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

Rolex Eaton watch Ref #1011 BOMBAY LUGS 

ROLEX REF #1011 BOMBAY LUGS 14K SOLID YELLOW GOLD AUTOMATIC MEN'S WATCH

The Eaton departments store in Canada was a legendary retailer for over most of the 20th Century but eventually went into bankruptcy in 1999, after 130 years in business. One of the lasting legacy of their history is the Quarter Century Club watches made by Rolex for their long service awards. The watches are rare in the fact that it is perhaps the only a few instances were Rolex allowed their watches to be rebranded with another companies name and certainly the only one in the post war era. These were amongst the only ROLEX watches produced and allowed by ROLEX to appear without the name ROLEX on the dial. This watch also retains the original ROLEX winding crown.

These watches were presented to employees of Canada's T. Eaton department store who has served twenty-five-year with the company.  It comes in different varieties depending on when the watch was given away. There are a few models from early Pocket watches, to Prince series ref Ref 1490 in the 1930s, ref 2927 in the 1950s, to a manual winding model ref 6022, 6222, 6422, in the 1950s and this automatic model ref 1011 from 1960s, 5031 from the 1970s. For the ladies, there is ref 4554.

This is one of the last series Eaton 14k century club with the desirable automatic movement, and desirable bombe lug with original Dauphine style hands and sweep seconds. The watch is 33mm in diameter and like most Eaton watch is in solid 14k. gold. This Quarter century club ROLEX dating to 1963! This particular model uses the (rarest) reference 1011 solid gold ROLEX OYSTER case with inwardly curved BOMBE lugs. The movement is the original caliber 1520. Ths watch has shown sign of usage and they are aged marking at the dial as the watch is 53 years old...

Not many collectors want to collect these watches owing to the lack of Rolex on the dial and the popularity of the Rolex sports watches. This automatic watch has been on my bucket list for a long time and I have finally found one at very good price, after selling my Seiko 6246, as part of my watch collecting rules of one out one in...

Rolex Day Date Boxes

I have a special Day Date box with an extremely big Rolex Crown And buckle. 

Normal 

Extra large Rolex crown 

Vintage Rolex Prince ref 1343A obeservatory doctor watch in Stainless steel

The Rolex Prince with the two dials is often referred to as a ‘doctors watch’ or ‘duo-dial’. The large seconds dial enabling the wearer to time heart beats, etc more accurately. The Rolex Prince was first commercially produced in 1929 and it has a special movement, initially made by Aegler and Wilsdorf , when in 1927 a patent was filed for a “shaped watch movement with a seconds dial”. In this new watch the winding barrel and the balance wheel were at opposite ends of the movement allowing for a larger balance wheel and thus more accuracy. A larger winding barrel also meant that the watch could run for longer on a single wind. This allowed most Princes to be chronometer rated and most were indeed sold with a chronometer certificate.The variation of the Prince models available, even though most movements were similar (besides the rare Jump Hour model) the cases came in a few different shapes and metals. 

The Brancard case in silver, gold, platinum and stainless steel, also two colour and ‘tiger-stripe’, the Railway case with stepped sides and also a straight sided case design. Besides the differences in case shape, in term of material used, we often see vintage Rolex Prince in 9k, 14k, 18k gold watch case or in steel and gold or silver case. Rolex Prince in stainless steel case is produced in very limited number for some reasons. Perhaps, steel watch was not luxurious enough. Rolex say there was a limited number of Prince watches ‘as such fine watches cannot be produced quickly or in large quantities’. This Rolex stainless steel has taken me decades to get everything right starting with an empty steel case only. The serial number indicates that its 01066X with reference 1343A marking it produced in 1926 earlier than the official launch date. The restoration project was fun indeed! Glad that I can revived one old Prince...

There is one similar one Vintage Rolex Prince Observatory Doctor's Stainless Steel Watch, 1930s, but   movement is Gruen. 

https://www.1stdibs.com/jewelry/watches/wrist-watches/vintage-rolex-prince-observatory-doctors-stainless-steel-watch-1930s/id-j_6810242/

Melik Mido from 1936

Mido was a brand with much innovation and creativity during the early years. From their web page : One of the most popular crazes of the 1930s, fully embraced by the brand, was the costume watch. This took its influence from the worlds of sport and fashion, a huge source of inspiration for Mido's pieces. The brand's chief technician specialised in small calibres, which enabled him to work wonders. 

The expertise of Mido's watchmakers allowed them to create a number of highly exotic models, designed for both male and female customers: watches which featured a set of rolling balls instead of hour and minute hands, the Melik-Mido. This model was also available as a pocket watch and a table clock. 

There are very few information four Mido Malik. When I searched the internet, there are less than 10 pieces of such watches. It’s a handwind chrome plated mystery dial watch made in the 1930s and the two balls indicate the hour and minute hands. From the engraving, we can tell that it’s from the year 1936, some 86 years ago. This will be the last nostagic watch for the year after having the Harwood, Gruen's doctor watch.

I have finally managed to find another Melik Mido to pair it up.

https://www.fratellowatches.com/dear-mido-bring-back-the-melik-mido/#gref

Apr - Jun 2022, Q2 Review

For the second quater 2022, I have tried to be very selective and extremely careful in my collection. I really wanted to tighten my collection limiting to Rolex and only to a few to keep my collection manageable following my less successful attempts in Q1. 

However, as you can see, in Q2, I have not been very successful for two reasons. Firstly, I am on a nostalgic moment where I have been on the path of getting back some watches that I have sold during the late 1980s and 1990s when I first started watch collecting. Secondly, I have continued my search for Rolex in my wishlists. Nevertheless, I have tried to take it slow now and for the last few days of June, i have been focusing  on the time consuming restoration of vintage watches. 

1. Rolex Explorer 1 ref 6610

This is my second Explorer 6610. My first was purchsed in July 2013.Traded two Omegas plus cash for it

Octo Missilemaster was a populat Mid Price brand in HK during the 1950-60s

Couldnt resist a Rose gold  Rolex 6309. Traded to watches with cash top up for this. 

I have decided to buy this as a project for restoring an old Rolex Prince

Restored Rolex and Gruen doctor's watch each with the correctly marked movements

 

1920s Harwood watch - World's first automatic watch 

Rolex 1803 in Rose gold day date. Even though this is not the most expensive, its one that required the most effort in searching as Rose gold Day Date is super rare, plus having a pink gold dial is also a difficult combination to find.

Wishlists:

1. Rolex rose gold 6309 Pre Thunderbird (Found)

2. Rolex rose gold 1803 Day Date President watch (Found)

3. Rolex 1601 or 1803 Tigereye or Lapis or Onyx

4. Jaeger leCoultre memovx lapis

5. Jaeger lecoultre polaris

Traded away 2022 : To keep the watches number down, I have traded the following:

1. Felix the cat watch

2. Tudor watch ref 7934

3. Rolex 6206 bracelets

4. Omega Constellation date 168.027 white gold bezel

5. Omega 3944/2473

7. Vintage Silver watch

8. Lip thermometer watch

9. Rolex 6604

Revival of a steel Rolex Prince watch part 2 : Restoration of an old Rolex Prince and Gruen doctor's watch

I have finally managed to complete the restoration of the 1930s Gruen Doctor's watch and the Rolex Prince doctor's watch. As per my earlier blog, it seemed like an easy project in the beginning, i.e. just swap the movement. However, owing to the slight differences in case sizes due to different case design and the sizes of the winding crowns, these factors have made the project more complicated. In the end, I will need to source for New old stocks winding stems in order to get it  done. Moreover, the Gruen's movement will need a new balance wheel pin too as the old one was also fautly.

The Gruen doctor watch originally was fitted with a Rolex caliber 300 movement but I have finally managed to get it replaced with right Gruen engraved caliber 877 movement. Even though both movements are identical, there are slight differences in terms of chronometer graded versus non chronometer grade movement. So the purists  can finally agree ..

The Rolex caliber 300 chronometer grade movement was finally fitted into a vintage steel Rolex prince steel case.

Watches ranging from the 1920s-30s-40s

I shall continue to refine my watch collection as my son has started to have a keen interest in watch collecting and I shall seek his views on what his prefered collections shall be...

Vintage Rolex Rose gold watch ; Rose Rose I love you 玫瑰玫瑰我爱你

I love rose gold watches and the following are the rose gold watches that I ahve managed to find, trade and exchange back. Every single piece has take me much time and efforts but the process is fun!

Rose gold 1803

Rose gold 1601 (1970, 1973)

Rose gold 1601 (1967, 1965)

Rose gold 6305 (1953)

Rose gold 6309 (1959)

This is how a new old stock Rose dial looks like (photo courtesy from the internet, cant seems to find the site). Kindly note that there are many cutome dial or econditioned coloured dial in the market.