Rolex Precision Cal.710 9ct 1950

Rolex

Founded in 1905 in England by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis as Wilsdorf & Davis, the partnership became known as the Rolex Watch Company in 1915, moving to its new Geneva headquarters in 1919. The success of the wristwatch can be largely attributed to many of Rolex’s innovations which made the company one of the most respected and well-known of all luxury brands. These have included its famous “Oyster” case — the world’s first water-resistant and dustproof watch case, invented in 1926 — and its “Perpetual” — the world’s first reliable, self-winding movement for the wristwatch, launched in 1933. These would form the foundation for Rolex’s Datejust and Day-Date, respectively introduced in 1945 and 1956. Also and equally importantly, Rolex is known for its sports watches, such as the Explorer, Submariner and GMT-Master launched in the mid-1950s.

Description

Here we have a quite special, Rolex Precision in a beautiful Dennison-made 9ct yellow gold case. The watch is a small size at 30mm in diameter, excluding the unsigned crown, with a wonderfully clean, elegant and perfectly balanced ivory-cream dial. This watch also carries the Rolex high grade Calibre 710, 15 jewel hand wound movement which is also in sparkling condition after a full service.

Note –  At 30mm this watch would originally have been marketed as a gentlemans watch, as during the 1950s, gentlemans watches tended to be much smaller. Today however, the fashion is for gents to wear much larger watches and for ladies to wear this kind of watch. Therefore this could be considered suitable for both.

The Dial

This is the classic gold on ivory cream 1950s dial. The watch you see here has gilt ‘1 – 12’ standard Arabic numerals which are swept by ‘lance’ hands with a blued steel seconds hand. All of these wonderful aspects give the watch a perfect presence when upon the wrist.

The dial is simply signed ‘Rolex’ below 12 and ‘Shock-Resisting’ with ‘Swiss Made’ at the very bottom.

The lens has been replaced with a new original Rolex part and so it is fresh and scratch-free.

As the dial is original and unrestored, this has been left untouched by our restoration team due to its superb condition. Usually, we restore the dials of the watches we sell, however we decided in this case to leave it alone. It also helps to contrast with almost all of the other watch dials you see on our website, which have been restored. The hands, likewise, have also been left in their original condition.

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’re seeing 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 watch carries its original high grade Rolex calibre 710, 15 jewel movement, which as can be seen, is in immaculate condition. The movement has been completely disassembled by our vintage Rolex specialist watchmaker, then cleaned, inspected under high magnification and rebuilt using only original Rolex replacement parts where required. His work is amazing and following careful calibration and testing, this watch is now running within +10 seconds per day. This really is excellent for any vintage watch of this age.

The movement is signed ‘Rolex’, ‘Swiss Made’ and ’15 Rubis’ with the Calibre number 710.

These movements are strong, accurate and very reliable making this watch perfectly suited for regular everyday use. This particular movement is in A1 condition and with regular servicing, say every 3 – 4 years, we would fully expect this watch to run happily for many more decades to come! We are therefore pleased to offer a 12-month warranty on this watch movement*.

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

The Case

The 9ct gold Rolex double signed case measures a small 30mm in diameter, excluding the unsigned crown. The case was made for Rolex by Dennison in the UK who made watch cases for many of the top Swiss watch manufacturers at this time. Dennison and Sons in Birmingham and Shackman and Sons in London, both produced top quality cases for almost all of the watch brands you see on this website. As this case was made by Dennison & Co it is of exceptional quality. It is of a three-piece design, with the beautiful early press fit case-back. The case has been professionally cleaned, inspected and very lightly hand-polished and is in excellent condition, having been very well cared for with no significant scratches or wear visible to the naked eye. The press fit case-back clicks into place very satisfyingly, is of full thickness, and has never been inscribed.

The inside of the case-back shows the double signature with ‘Made in England for Rolex’ along with ‘Dennison’ and ‘A.L.D’. Also found are the correct Birmingham 9ct gold hallmarks, the case reference number 12325 and the case serial number 352464.

Please note, as ever our standard advice applies: Vintage watches should be kept clean and dry at all times.

The Strap and Buckle

The strap fitted is a high quality brown leather strap, with a Rolex gold-plated buckle which we feel contrasts nicely with the watch. However, if a different colour or style of strap is preferred, please let us know and we will do our best to oblige free of charge. We carry tan, conker, dark brown and black in stock, in plain padded leather, crocodile skin or lizard skin, but can also obtain most types and colours of strap from our partners at ‘Watch Obsession’ within 48hrs. Please take a look at their huge range of straps if you wish, here.

Box and Papers

Although there are no original papers with this watch, the reference numbers, markings, signatures and hallmarks are all correct, dating this watch to 1950.

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”.

The high quality hardwood presentation box shown in the photographs is included in the sale.

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.