In our labyrinthine web searches we have recently discovered a great vintage watch site by the name of www.watchestobuy.com. Canadian Derek Dier of London, Ontario Canada has run the business for 25 years, and the website since 1998, making him truly one of the earliest pioneers of online vintage watch sales.
Over the years Derek has supplied watches to the Royal Family, world dignitaries, the movie industry, noted musicians, actors, writers, artists, fortune 500 CEO’s, ultra-elite boutiques and collectors. And in addition to a superb inventory of vintage Rolexes and Omega’s he specialises in extremely rare vintage Canadian Rolex watches from the 1940’s.
Canadian version Rolex watches are so rare that even some Rolex collectors believe they have stumbled upon some kind of fakes when they do find them, as can be witnessed by an alert posted on one blog which is dedicated to all things Rolex:
Ah, but we know different. These models certainly did exist, as explained here by Derek himself. Read and learn:
Watches to buy.com has an affinity toward the elusive Canadian version Rolex watches! We will focus on the WW2 military non-oyster Rolex watches that were produced during the 1940’s this time-and save the others for another day.
Rolex exported their movements to Canada in the 1940’s and had their watches cased here in Canada to circumvent duty costs. Case companies such as ID and Pioneer were commissioned to produce cases for the non-oyster watches such as the Rolex Victory, Skyrocket, Hurricane, Corvette and Wellington. These watches were often crudely signed Rolex on the inner case and sometimes not signed at all. The movements were caliber 59 or modified caliber 59’s for the Rolex Standard, which were all signed Rolex on the dial plate (under the dial)-but not anywhere on the visible portion of the movement. One must remove the dial to see the Rolex signature. Of these watches, cases were stainless steel, sterling silver, rhodium plated or gold filled. They were never solid gold. Case sizes were always small-between 27.5 and 29.5mm.
The Wellington and Hurricane were the smallest of the non-oyster watches produced, but were also the most expensive when sold new, due to their higher quality-with these signed Rolex movements being adjusted to 6 positions. The Victory and Skyrocket were $32.75 in 1942, whilst the Wellington and Hurricane were $52-$55 depending on the case metals.
We cannot forget the importance of the Rolex nurses’ watches and dress watches (standards) of the same era-we will save them for another blog. We are lucky to have acquired one of the only original newspaper sized Rolex advertising samples sent to dealers in 1942, which shows the original Canadian WW2 Rolex pricing.
And posted here courtesy of watches to buy.com is the newspaper ad in question. Both the Canadian World War II Rolex watches and www.watches to buy are a great find.
