Extremely Rare Small Antique (1919) Boxed Highly Collectible Ladies 9ct Gold Swiss Rolex Cocktail Wrist Watch (20.6g).
A fantastic ladies manual wind watch with the original expandable Excalibur rolled gold front and stainless steel back bracelet strap. in excellent working order and still in its original silk lined presentation purchase box. Please browse all 12 sets of photographs attached for size, weight and condition as they are self explanatory. The front glass and the back plate on this watch open and close on a unique double hinge mechanism prevalent on the older antique pocket watches. Watch cases such as these are seldom, if ever, made nowadays. The watch mechanism and case are an absolute work of master craftsmen of the highest order.
The watch is fully hallmarked with an upside down hallmark! Curiously the first import hallmarks stamped by the London Assay Office since 1907 had the London Zodiac symbol of Leo upside down! This was not corrected until 1950, from when the Leo symbol was stamped the correct way. Incidentally most of the early wristwatches were imported after June 1907, simply because there were very few wristwatches made before that date making this watch a very early Rolex wrist watch!
Case & bracelet unexpanded: 6.1”/16cm
Bracelet unexpanded: 5”/13cm
Bracelet expanded: 9”/23cm
Case diameter including crown: 1.1”/3cm
Case thickness: 8mm
Strap width: 5mm
Lug width: 5mm
Rolex is a British founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer, established in 1905, based in Geneva, Switzerland. This Rolex is highly collectible and is of historical importance as it is from an era before the original makers of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, registered Rolex as the brand name of its watches in 1908 and became Rolex Watch Company Ltd. in 1915.
Wilsdorf and Davis's main commercial activity initially involved importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing them in watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were sold to many jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial. The earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked "W&D" inside the caseback (as is the case with this watch)
In 1908, Wilsdorf registered the trademark "Rolex", which became the brand name of watches from Wilsdorf and Davis. He opened an office in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Wilsdorf wanted the brand name to be easily pronounceable in any language, and short enough to fit on the face of a watch. He also thought that the name "Rolex" was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound.
In November 1915, the company changed its name to Rolex Watch Co Ltd. In 1919, Hans Wilsdorf moved the company from England to Geneva, Switzerland, because of heavy post-war taxes levied on luxury imports and high export duties on the silver and gold used for the watch cases. In 1920 the company's name was officially changed to Montres Rolex SA and later to Rolex SA.
The brand value is currently estimated at over $8 billion. Rolex watches continue to have a reputation as status symbols.
Each Rolex comes with a unique serial number, which can help indicate its approximate production period. Serial numbers were first introduced in 1926 and were issued sequentially. From 2010, to the present date Rolex introduced random serial numbers.
On October 26, 2017, a Rolex Daytona (Ref. 6239) wristwatch, manufactured in 1968, was sold by Phillips in its New York auction for US$17.75 million. The watch was originally purchased by Joanne Woodward in 1968 and was given by Joanne to her husband, the actor, Paul Newman as a gift. The auction price set a record at $15.5 million, plus buyer's premium of 12.5%, for a final price of $17,752,500 in New York City. As of 2018, it is the most expensive wristwatch and the second most expensive watch ever sold at auction. Notably the time that Newman gave the watch to James Cox, as a gift, the watch was selling for about $200!
On May 28, 2018, a Rolex Daytona "Unicorn" Ref. 6265 was sold in auction by Phillips for US$5.937 million in Geneva, making it the second most expensive Rolex timepiece ever sold at auction (as of 2018).
The most expensive Rolex (in terms of retail price) ever produced by the Rolex factory was the GMT Ice reference 116769TBR with a retail price of US$485,350.
In a famous murder case, the Rolex on Ronald Platt's wrist eventually led to the arrest of his murderer, Albert Johnson Walker—a financial planner who had fled from Canada when he was charged with 18 counts of fraud, theft, and money laundering. When the body was found in the English Channel in 1996 by a fisherman named John Coprik, a Rolex wristwatch was the only identifiable object on the body. Since the Rolex movement had a serial number and was engraved with special markings every time it was serviced, British police traced the service records from Rolex and identified the owner of the watch as Ronald Platt. In addition, British police were able to determine the date of death by examining the date on the watch calendar. Since the Rolex movement was fully waterproof and had a reserve of two days of operation when inactive, they were able to determine the time of death within a small margin of error.