Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Antique. Private Collection and not for sale now.

If there is any other holy grail in collecting Rolex watches, this is it. Exceedingly rare to find one in this condition and we waited 3 decades for this watch to surface. This is the one and only known Oyster pocket watch made by Rolex in the late 1920s to early 30s. It is the birth child from the original 1st generation Oyster wristwatch made famous by Ms Mercedes Gleitz who wore one and swam across the English channel in 1926. A time when wristlet (early name for wrist watches) were uncommon and men used pocket watches to tell time. Somehow Rolex decided to produce a waterproof model in the form of a pocket watch, maybe for the yachtsman or someone who's always exposed to the elements would require something like this. However, Francois Borgel is credited as the first Swiss manufacturer of the waterproof watch with patent CH4001 in 1891 while there were evidence of another being exhibited by W. Pettit & Co in London's Great Exhibition of 1851. Most of these pocket watches were designed for explorers who were traversing the far ends of earth in the late 19th and early 20th century so having a pocket watch that was protected from the elements was a necessary tool and timekeeping being an essential instrument for navigation.

Audemars Piguet did produce some water resistant Royal Oak pocket watches in the later part of 20th century & so did IWC with an Ingenieur 5215.

Anyhow sales for this waterproof Oyster pocket watch must've been slow and by mid 1930s they decided to convert this pocket watch into a wrist watch by welding wire lugs to the case for straps and some samples were offered to Officine Panerai and the rest is history. So yes, this is the ancestor of all Panerai watches and as evidenced, the earliest Panerai watches were fitted with the same Cortebert Cal.663 movement shown here.

The original crown on this watch screw locks like you would on any modern Oyster watches and this design has never shown up on any pocket watches.

The back cover is engraved E.M.M. 16.9.31 for 1931. It is interesting to note that the serial number of this watch does not match the standard Oyster wristwatch case numbers so dating it is not possible.

1931 was the year that the Empire State building was completed. Ferdinand Porsche founded Porsche AG and the beginning of Great Depression while China was embroiled in civil war.