Sign In
(817) 503-2334
Contact Us
By:
Rolex of the 1920s versus the Rolex of the 1930s
From its inception in 1905, Rolex spent the first decade of its life scoring a series of modest yet noteworthy victories.
They were the first brand, for instance, to make a wristwatch accurate enough to be awarded a Class A Chronometer Certificate from the Kew Observatory in London, a distinction only bestowed on marine chronometers until that point.
But the company was still a watch assembler rather than a true watchmaker. They would buy in components from several top manufacturers and combine them into one model, then sell that piece to retailers to add on their own name.
However, the First World War caused a seismic shift in the public’s perception of wristwatches, and by the beginning of the 1920s they were no longer seen as items of effeminate jewelry but were rather what battle-hardened soldiers had worn while enduring the horrors of the trenches.
The stage was set then for a whole new era in horology—and Rolex stood poised to take full advantage.
Rolex of the 1920s versus the Rolex of the 1930s: The Oyster Case
As exciting as wristwatch developments were during this period, there were still a few downsides with the existing models which needed to be addressed. The most pressing concerned safeguarding their integrity.
The main advantage of a pocket watch was that it was afforded a great deal of protection by the fact it was kept tucked away inside clothing most of the time. As a result, there was little need to provide a particularly robust case, and certainly issues such as waterproofing were of little consideration.
Not so with the wristwatch. By their very nature, these were exposed to the elements far more and so required something much sturdier to keep the dust and debris of everyday life out of the delicate inner workings of their movements.
It was a problem which occupied the mind of Rolex founder, Hans Wilsdorf for some years. One of his first solutions was named the Hermetic, otherwise known as the Submarine, and featured a screw down cap which shielded both the movement itself and also the winding crown. But while that protected the most notoriously delicate part of any watch design, it lost out in the convenience stakes, with wearers forced to open the watch up completely to wind it or adjust the time.
It would take another few years before Wilsdorf struck gold. He had picked up the habit of analyzing the innovations registered with the Swiss patent office for inspiration and, in 1926, he stumbled upon no. 114948. Invented by Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret, two men from Switzerland’s spiritual home of watchmaking, La Chaux-de-Fonds, it was a proposal for a new system of winding crown, one that screwed into a threaded tube inside the watch case.
It was the answer to a thorny problem and Wilsdorf was able to predict its commercial effectiveness. However, Rolex was becoming a well-known name in the industry by this point and, concerned that fame would see the price of the invention rise sharply, Wilsdorf enlisted Charles Rodolphe Spillman, the owner of one of Rolex’s case makers, to buy the patent instead. Five days later, on 24th July 1926, Spillman transferred the patent to Rolex and by the 29th, Wilsdorf had registered ‘Oyster’ as a company trademark.
Rolex of the 1920s versus the Rolex of the 1930s: The Rolex Oyster
It is fair to say that the arrival of Rolex’s Oyster case was one of the most important moments in modern watchmaking history.
Even away from the pure practicality, the innovation went still further in changing the public’s mind about the utility of the wristwatch. Yet, there was still a little fine-tuning to take care of.
The first batch of Oyster cases was provided by Aegler, Rolex’s longtime partner. And it was their prototypes which highlighted a problem. Because this was in the days before automatic movements (and we’ll get onto that in a bit) the watches were all manually-winding. But when the movement was fully wound, the crown would stop turning, preventing the wearer from being able to screw it tightly into the case. So, Wilsdorf retreated to the annals of the Swiss patent register once more. There, from all the way back in 1881, he found plans for a ‘crown clutch’, which allowed for the crown to be fully tightened into the body of the watch regardless of the state of tension on the mainspring.
It is a testament to the winding crown system as a whole that its basics are more or less the same now as they were then. The arrangement was strengthened by Rolex in the 1950s with the Twinlock and then again in the ‘60s with the Triplock, but the fundamentals have carried all the way through to today from those early attempts. The cases themselves, on the other hand, have progressed a bit more.
Aegler’s first developments attached the movement, dial and hands onto a threaded metal ring which was then fitted into the case rather than directly onto the case itself. Then the crown, its winding stem and the tube into which they both fastened were put in place and the whole thing was sealed tight by screwing down the bezel and case back either side. That created a formidably tight seal, with the gaskets between each component made from a soft lead so they would deform slightly under pressure and fill in any gaps left by the manufacturing process.
Rolex of the 1920s versus the Rolex of the 1930s: The First Oyster Watches
With no time to lose, Wilsdorf launched his first fully-fledged Oyster watches in 1926. A collection of four, meant for both men and women and available in either 28mm or 32mm, they each had Art Deco-esque octagonal or cushion-shaped cases. The bezels received a coin-edged finish, a precursor to the fluted type we know today and were a practical element, giving watchmakers something to grip as they screwed the surround down onto the case.
The following year saw perhaps Wilsdorf’s most masterful promotional coup to date. Upon hearing of British athlete, Mercedes Gleitze’s upcoming attempt to be the first person to swim the English channel, Wilsdorf persuaded her to wear one of his new Oysters during the endeavor.
And while Gleitze may have just failed to complete the challenge, the watch emerged from 10 hours submerged in the icy waters completely unscathed and operating perfectly. The following month, Wilsdorf bought an entire page in the Daily Mail newspaper to promote his ‘Wonder Watch that Defies the Elements’.
Rolex of the 1920s versus the Rolex of the 1930s: The Perpetual
Rolex’s development of the Oyster case put them at the forefront of the industry. But there was still one more major obstacle to overcome.
As effective as the system was, there was still plenty of room for user error. The crown had to be unscrewed everyday to wind the watch, which in itself put a strain on the threads and gaskets, which would eventually deteriorate. But even more hazardous than that was the chance that the wearer would eventually just forget to wind the crown back in (and who among us…?) leading to all sorts of undesirables leaking their way inside the case.
The obvious solution was a movement which wound itself, so it was back to the patent office for Wilsdorf.
There he found the work of one John Harwood, a watchmaker from the Isle of Man who, in 1923, developed and registered the first automatic wristwatch. While the Harwood Self-Winding Watch Companyhad brought his brainchild to market in 1928, the idea had not really taken off and only around 30,000 units were ever made. Then, in 1931, the company fell victim to the Great Depression and went into receivership, which freed up the patent for anyone to cultivate it.
Emile Borer, head of research at Aegler at the time, advanced Harwood’s design by replacing his semi-circular weight with a unidirectional rotor that spun a full 360° rather than the previous 300°. Wilsdorf then purchased the system and gave it the name ‘Perpetual’.
The Perpetual achieved a number of things. Firstly, it meant the crown was used only sporadically, when it was necessary to set the time, saving wear and tear on both the Oyster case’s threads and its internal waterproofing seals, as well as reducing the risk of leaving it unscrewed. Secondly, it provided better accuracy than hand-winding by keeping more tension on the mainspring, again saving wearers from having to use the crown. And thirdly, it signaled the final death knell for the pocket watch. A timepiece which wound itself was obviously highly expedient, but it did require a certain amount of movement in order to work. A pocket watch, held relatively still against the body, just didn’t receive enough kinetic energy to power it.
The first Rolex Oyster Perpetuals were launched in 1933, soon picking up the nickname Bubblebacks due to the domed cases needed to accommodate the fairly large and rudimentary calibers. And if you take a look at Rolex’s collection today, every single piece bar the one Cellini model bears the words ‘Oyster’ and ‘Perpetual’ on the dial, confirmation of perhaps the two most momentous breakthroughs in wristwatch design ever made.
Rolex of the 1920s versus the Rolex of the 1930s: Rolex’s Reputation Grows
With the waterproof case and self-winding movement bolstering their reputation, Rolex’s standing in the business started to grow.
By 1936, Italian manufacture, Panerai came knocking at their door, looking for help with a military issue. They had been commissioned by the Regia Marina, the Italian Navy, to produce a dive watch featuring Panerai’s newly invented luminescent paint, Radiomir.
Their search for a housing strong and impervious enough for the toughest of environments meant there was only one place to turn and Rolex enlarged one of their Oysters to a huge 47mm, soldering wire loops top and bottom to hold a strap. Inside was a movement built for Rolex by Cortebert, the Cal. 618. The result was the ref. 2533, the first of a series of such watches, christened the Radiomir after the paint, that Rolex and Panerai would create together.
By the time WWII broke out in 1939, Rolex was flying high. In fact, the war did a great deal to advance not only Rolex’s place in the industry, but also to secure Switzerland as the home of fine watchmaking, a position it retains today.
That period between the 1930s and 1940s is where the brand really started to get into its stride, and we’ll pick up again there next time.
Featured Photo Credit: BeckerTime’s Archive.
