Description
This is a circa 1942 Oyster made by Rolex for soldiers going overseas in WW2 and sold at the PX stores in Canada. The original caliber 59 manual-winding movement was correctly marked “Rolex” under the dial only, and not on the bridge. This movement is a reworked Fontmelon FHF30 – it is completely correct and original to the watch also used on many other Oyster watches, such as the Canadian version Oyster Neptune, Lipton, Raleigh, Turtle, Commander, Recorda, Grenfell, Standard, Shipmate, Edison, Junior Sport, Pioneer, Pall Mall, Solar, Solar Aqua, King Of Wing and Birks. The Tudor Oyster Essex, Tudor Oyster London, Tudor Oyster Bristol, Tudor Oyster Regent, Tudor Oyster Yorke — plus just the name “Oyster” — appear correctly on some 1940s Tudor Oysters as well, along with the (non-Oyster) Sky-Rocket and (non-Oyster) Victory. I hope I named them all — phew. I must also mention the non-Oyster versions, the Sky-rocket and Victory. The 28.75mm ref. 3478 gold-filled (correct) Oyster case is the usual small size, measuring 28.6mm and retains the Oyster-Patent signed winding crown (with wear). The correct ref. 3478 steel, Oyster back is present. The dial was refinished with the usual 24-hour military register and luminous Arabic numerals. This vintage Oyster watch retains the original blued-steel-pencil-hands and red sweep seconds. It is always great to find original hands on these watches, as often they are replaced with different hands. The wording “shock resisting” on this dial was changed to curved print instead of the usual straight wording design. This movement was just serviced. We purchased this watch here in London, Ontario Canada from the family of the original owner. These small WW2-era Canadian watches always attract eyes to the wrist.
