ON THE UPRolex
Rolex achieved more than twenty world records in just twenty years, and today their watches are on the up – in a rather spectacular manner! At the turn of the twentieth century, when German businessman Hans Wilsdorf first introduced his ‘wristlet’ watch, the pocket watch was mainstream and the wristwatch was considered too feminine for anyone but the ladies to wear. Besides the fact that it wasn’t manly to wear a watch on one’s arm, there were also concerns that the movements would be so small they would fail to survive under normal human activity. Wilsdorf was undaunted. He purchased large quantities of lever 18ct diamond dial Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date President with the diamond dial c.1986, $15,750 courtesy Kalmar Antiques, Sydney. In 1914 the company’s first Kew A Chronometer Certificate was awarded. This entailed 45 days of testing of the Rolex watch at the Kew Observatory in London, and included observing its precision inside a refrigerator and a heated oven. After the award, Wilsdorf decided all Rolex watches would undergo and pass these tests before being sold. A second Kew A Certificate was awarded in 1925 for a lady’s model, and in that year Wilsdorf spent 100,000f advertising the quality of the Rolex in UK news periodicals. In 1926 the Rolex Oyster was launched. Its name was decided Gent’s 18ct yellow gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust with the diamond dial c.1978, $8,150 courtesy Kalmar Antiques, Sydney. Wilsdorf’s next major invention was a self-winding watch introduced in 1931. Known today as the Perpetual, the ‘rotor’ that sat on the movement swung in either direction, which meant the watch was charged with only the slightest movement. In 1945 he released the Datejust, which was the first wristwatch to show the date; by this time more than 1100 staff were employed by the Rolex company. More developments followed, including the Day-Date model in 1956, the Oyster Perpetual Sea Dweller 2000 in 1971 (the first of its kind to incorporate a helium gas release valve to dispense helium during decompression), and the Sea Dweller 4000 in 1980. Today Rolex produces more than 800,000 watches each year, and remains one of the few watch houses to produce their own movements. One of the attractive qualities of a Rolex, if you’re buying for investment, is that it can be sold quickly and at a minimal (if any) loss. Because Rolex increases the retail price of theirs watches one or two times a year, once you’ve kept a watch for more than ten years you’re more than likely to recoup most of your initial outlay if you decide to resell. And if you’ve got a stainless steel Rolex Daytona model, or the stainless steel 16610 date Submariner, you’re very likely to make a profit; both are highly collectable. Not quite as collectable, however, as the 1978 Rolex Ref 5517 military Royal Navy Submariner Oyster Perpetual stainless steel watch that sold at a UK auction in June 2009 for nearly $98,000, but then fewer than 1000 of these watches were made, making them rare and highly sought. More of a surprise was the c.1977 Oyster Perpetual Date Sea-Dweller Submariner 2000 that sold at auction in March 2009 for $32,400 against a top estimate of $2200. Other notable prices from 2009 sales include an 18ct gold Oyster Perpetual Datejust Chronometer that sold for $7500, and an 18ct gold automatic day-date centre seconds Oyster Perpetual Chronometer from 1997 that made $13,250 against expectations of around $5500. This information first appeared in Issue 35 of Antiques and Collectables for Pleasure & Profit.
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escapement movements from a Swiss workshop, choosing
those that ran with precision and for which there was a good availability of quality spare parts. He employed watchmakers who tested the movements before they went on sale, and by 1908 his Swiss-based firm had sold so many wristwatches - branded
Rolex - through its London outlet that it was already among the leading watch merchants in the UK.
upon at a dinner party where Wilsdorf was having
particular trouble opening an oyster. He remarked to the other guests that he hoped his new design of watch would be as resilient as that particular oyster… It was designed to be completely watertight whilst still offering complete precision, a test it
passed with flying colours when English typist Mercedes Gleitze swam the Channel the following year wearing one of the watches; she emerged from her fifteen-hour ordeal with a perfectly functioning Rolex. A month later, Wilsdorf bought the title
page advertisement for the UK Daily Mail (at 40,000f) and his Oyster watch became famous overnight.
