Ladies Rolex Tudor 9ct 1966

Tudor

Created by Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf, Tudor owes much of its initial success to its affiliation with Rolex. Tudor watches were originally intended as a more affordable alternative, offering the same quality and craftsmanship, but at a lower price point. Today however, Tudor is flourishing as a popular watch brand in its own right.

Description

Here we have a wonderful original Tudor Ladies dress watch from 1966 with a beautiful, original, unrestored and untouched silver dial. This watch is a classic and an excellent 1960s example of some of the outstanding work Tudor created. This watch shows some wonderful signs of ageing, which is one of the reasons we have to decided to leave this watch alone, rather than restore it.

The Dial

The dial on this watch is beautifully symmetrical, well balanced and proportioned. The silver colour contrasts wonderfully with the 9ct yellow gold case, original gilt ‘stick’ hands and yellow gold standard Arabic 1 – 12 numerals. The dial is in wonderful unique, original, unrestored and untouched condition and has a wonderful even patina with slight signs of pitting and fading, which can be seen in the photographs.

This dial is simply signed with ‘Tudor’ at the very top below 12.

Please note, studio lights, professional-grade digital cameras, and macro lenses can be very unkind to an unrestored vintage watch dial. Also the dial here measures less than 1.25 inches across, so the image you see here may be between 5 – 25 times larger than the watch itself. Therefore please keep in mind you are seeing many tiny flaws which cannot be seen, or will be very hard to see with the naked eye, even under close examination. Suffice to say, on the wrist, in natural light, this dial looks much better and carries a great deal more charm than the photographs portray.

The Movement

The original Tudor, 17 Jewel hand-wound movement is of exceptional quality and is original to this watch. It is signed ‘Tudor’, ’17 Rubis’,  and ‘Swiss Made’. The watch movement has been fully overhauled and serviced by our watchmaker who reports it to be in excellent condition and we are therefore happy to offer this watch with our 12 months warranty*.

Note: This watch is perfectly suited for evening wear and special occasions, but not for everyday use. Watches of this age, even with this quality of movement may gain or lose up to 2 minutes per day due to their age. They will however, run for at least 24 hours and are wonderful, both to wear and own.

*Please note – our 12 months’ warranty is only applicable if the full list price is paid.

The Case

The sturdy 9ct solid gold case measures just 16mm in diameter, excluding the correct Tudor unsigned crown. This is quite a small watch, however, the case is very robust meaning the watch, while ‘ladies cocktail watch size’, is still suitable for everyday use.

Inside the case-back, all the markings are correct and as we would expect, signed R.W.Co LTD (Rolex Watch Co Ltd)  along with 9ct hallmarks which date this watch to 1966. The case-back carries the Rolex model reference number 12198.

The case has been cleaned, carefully inspected and carefully hand-polished, which was all that was required to bring it back to its current tip-top condition with no scratches dings or marks of any kind visible to the naked eye.

As always, our standard advice applies: Vintage watches should be kept clean and dry at all times.

The Strap

The adjustable black leather strap is of the correct type and size for this watch and will fit a wide variety of ladies wrist sizes.

Box and Papers

Although there are no original papers with the watch, the numbers and markings are all correct, dating this watch to 1966.

Detailed particulars will be included with our purchase receipt for your interest and security. A separate insurance valuation for the replacement value of this watch will be provided at the time of sale along with our unique ‘Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee’ which states: “If this watch proves to be anything less than 100% genuine, authentic and original, a full refund will be given at any time”.

This watch is complete with a Tudor oyster shell presentation box as shown in the photographs.

Payment and Delivery

If you would like to pay by bank transfer, we will be pleased to assist you with this. Similarly, if you wish to pay by International SWIFT or Bank Wire Transfer we will provide you with our BIC / Swift number and our IBAN number.

Please check the import duties and any taxes your government may apply, these are different for each country and, unfortunately, out of our control.

We understand there may be some ‘loopholes’ that may help you avoid these charges; however, attempting to use these could impact our ongoing ability to serve our growing international customer base.

For those who happen to visit London on occasion, we are, of course, more than happy to store your watch until we can meet you in our offices in Kensington, London, and hand your watch directly to you there.

As with all our watches, this watch will be sold under our 14 days no-quibble sale or return policy.

In Conclusion

This is a superb, highly collectable and totally usable vintage watch from horology’s most famous name, which will provide an excellent financial investment as well as be something to treasure and enjoy! It will make the perfect gift as well as a practical, accurate and reliable timepiece to use on a regular basis, as you so wish.

A word on our prices – We always try our hardest to acquire the very best quality watches we can find, before then restoring these to the highest possible standards. We then offer these at the fairest prices we can, taking into account our pre and post sales care and service. This approach means we will never be the cheapest, but nor will we be the most expensive. Indeed there are some well known stores in West London which are highly successful, charging between two to three times the price you see here. We therefore consider our prices to be fair, given the quality of watches we have to offer.

We are happy to accept PayPal as this is the quickest method of payment. However, if you would like to pay by UK cheque or by UK bank transfer we will be pleased to assist you with this. Similarly, if you wish to pay by International SWIFT or Bank Wire Transfer we will provide you with our BIC / Swift number and our IBAN number.

Please check the import duties and any taxes your government may apply, these are different for each country and unfortunately out of our control.

We understand there may be some ‘loopholes’ that may help you avoid these charges, however attempting to use these could impact our ongoing ability to serve our growing international customer base.

For those that happen to visit the UK on occasion we are of course more than happy to store your watch until we can meet you in our offices in Kensington, London and deliver your watch directly to you there.

If you have any questions please call us on 0207 727 7095 or if calling from overseas please call +44 207 727 7095.

Please note, we welcome part exchanges. If you have a watch or small collection for sale, please contact us as we will be happy to discuss this.

We will also be happy to Service your watch, Repair your watch or Restore your watch, all at ‘sensible’ prices. Please see here.

Please take a look at our other fine vintage gold watches.

Thank you.