THE RAVENBORG COLLECTION OF ROLEX WRISTWATCHES
Hans Ravenborg, now 76, still runs the family business - the largest prestige car dealership and hire-service in Europe, which was founded with the first ever Opel dealership in 1898.
From his interest in fine machinery it was only natural that, when introduced to the intricacies of the watch movement that he wanted to collect them. With typical thoroughness he drew up the parameters of his future collection - fine manufacturer, comprehensive chronological collection of the maker's products and, above all, affordable. Almost inevitably the choice fell on Rolex, a company which by patient innovation has provided the world with some outstanding watches of thoroughly practical designs.
His collection of some 360 pieces is probably unique in its range of watches from one manufacturer covering a period of nearly 100 years and provides a rare opportunity to study not only the development of the Rolex wristwatch as we know it today, but also the extraordinary rise of a humble London based company in the 1900s to the largest independant Swiss watch manufacturer producing over 800,000 pieces per annum with retail outlets throughout the world. The Rolex story is one of vision, persistant technical development and extraordinary marketing skills incorporated, for the most part, in one man, its founder.
Although Rolex is such a household name, it is not so widely known that the company was founded in 1905 by 22 year old Hans E.W.Wilsdorf, who was born in Southern Germany, and his wealthy English backer, Alfred Davis, as "Wilsdorf and Davis" at 83 Hatton Garden, London, with the object of importing Swiss watch parts which they could assemble and distribute in Britain and the British Empire. Inspite of the male propensity for the pocketwatch, Wilsdorf intuitively felt there would be a wide market for a watch worn on the wrist and decided to concentrate his production in this field. By 1912 he was able to place orders for small watch mechanisms worth /p125,000 with his Swiss suppliers.
The First World War proved Wilsdorf right. The wristwatch was much more practical than the pocketwatch in the heat of battle. In addition millions of women were entering the manufacturing industries for the first time and found the fashionable pendant watch on a necklace positively dangerous near machinery.
In advance of his time Wilsdorf had already registered the brand name Rolex in 1908 - a meaningless name but one that was easy to pronouce in any language. After the war with continuing high import restrictions on watches, the partners moved the headquarters to Geneva, but kept offices in London.
Business prospered but demand grew for a waterproof watch, especially for tropical countries like India, where the high humidity would rapidly ruin a watch mechanism. Wilsdorf approached the Dennison Watch Company to design a screw back to the watch case which would give a better seal than the current snap back. The Swiss casemaker Baumgartner improved on this and developed a hermetically sealed case. Called the Hermetique, Lot 62, the mechanism is enclosed in an inner case, itself set within a two piece outer case which is screwed together to provide the seal. This was so effective that Wilsdorf patented it in 1923. One problem was however that the watch had to be opened to wind it. Wilsdorf had the good fortune and intuition to be able to buy the patent for a waterproof winder from the Swiss inventors Perregaux and Perret, thus enabling him to produce the first truly practical waterproof watch in 1926, calling it "the Oyster". The launch of this new watch was announced in a full page front cover advertisement in the Daily Mail of 24 November 1927 publicising the swimming of the Channel by a 26 year old London typist, Mercedes Gleitz, actually English, - the first woman to do so, and, of course, the first person to do so with a wristwatch.
The self winding mechanism followed in 1933 in answer to demand from his clients who had forgotten to screw down the winder and then complained about water entering the mechanism. John Harwood had invented and patented the first successful self-winding wristwatch mechanism in 1922 incorporating an oscillating rotor swinging through an arc of 300 degrees. The weakness of this system was that the shocks were transmitted to the mechanism which eventually caused damage. Wilsdorf's approach was to modify his existing mechanism and plant a rotor on the back which could rotate through 360 degrees, thus eliminating shocks to the mechanism and also permitting manual winding if necessary. This mechanism was thicker than the previous manual wind versions because of the rotor but existing case designs could be simply modified by fitting a domed back. The Oyster Perpetual Bubble back was launched in 1934.
Towards the end of the 1920s Wilsdorf patented a new type of mechanism, rectangular in shape with much improved running time and accuracy. The watch would also incorporate a large seconds hand for better legibility. This was the Prince - available at first in only two models, the Classic, Lots 117, 120 etc, and the Brancard, Lots 252, 253 etc, both launched in 1928. When the platinum version of the Brancard, Lot 328, was introduced in 1930 priced /p65.00, it cost nearly as much as a family car. Variations on the theme followed with the "Railway", Lots 250, 251 etc and also the Jump Hour movement, Lots 340, 341, 342 etc, whereby the hours are indicated in an aperture in the dial, changing precisely on the 60 minutes, hence the name. Another variation was the Asymmetric with its wedge-shaped case, designed for easier legibility on the wrist. One version utilises the standard Prince mechanism, Lots 347, 349 etc but a rarer version has sweep centre seconds, Lot 348, which entailed modifying the mechanism and also blanking off the section of the dial where the subsidary seconds would have been. The Sporting Prince, Lot 39, became known as the Golfers watch and was intended to be worn in the pocket to avoid the shock of the golf swing damaging the mechanism of a wristwatch.
By now Rolex was synonymous with the sporting life. These clients needed to record elasped time and consequently Rolex began to introduce the chronograph mechanism. At first these were operated by a single pusher, Lots 355-359, but by the late 1930s the more practical two pusher system was developed. This system with modifications such as waterproof pushers and elasped minutes and hours indications are still in use today. In 1986 the Daytona Chronograph started a market storm with wildly escalating dealer prices. The model they all sought was the "Paul Newman", Lots 303 - 306. This Daytona was so named after the aforementioned actor who wore a similar watch in the film "Winning"
The 1930s was a prolific time for Rolex not just in innovation but also in creating their market. Wilsdorf's main talent was vision. From the beginning Wilsdorf and Davis had assembled watches from parts supplied by others. The mechanisms he obtained from Herman Aegler, subsequently a partner in Rolex but essentially a movement manufacturer in Bienne, and the cases were made by Baumgartner and others. But Wilsdorf saw the future for wristwatches and, when others followed his lead and increased their competition, he perfected the waterproof case and concentrated on precision timekeeping. Already by 1914 he had obtained a Kew"A" certificate for one of his watches at the prestigious Royal Observatory at Kew, London. By no means did all his watches attain this high standard but it was good marketing policy and he used these awards to create public demand for the Rolex watches. With the introduction of the Prince range and their superior accuracy, Rolex printed the word "Chronometer"on the dial and for a fee a chronometer certificate would be supplied. The Perpetual self-winding mechanism was equally accurate, the mainspring, being in a virtually constant state of fully wound, excerted more constant force on the gear train and thus gave consistant results.
Just as in the beginning Wilsdorf came to London to be able to promote his products throughout the wealthiest market in the world at the time, the British Empire, so also he was well placed with a subsidary in America, when America began emerging from the Depression, and particularly after the Second World War, became the wealthiest market it is today.
As the demand for the Prince range began to wane after World War Two, Rolex concentrated on improving the already well established waterproof Oyster cases and the self-winding Perpetual mechanisms.
The Datejust self-winding waterproof watch with date indication and sweep centre seconds was launched in 1945. Its success was immediate, so much so that, with modifications, it is still being produced more than 50 years later. In 1954 the magnifier for the date aperture and the fluted bezel were added. The Day-Date came in 1956 together with a new Datejust with rotating milled bezel - the Turnograph, Lot 87 (known as the Thunderbird in America after the USAF Aerobatic team who promoted it). Synthetic Sapphire crystals have been introduced since the end of the 1970s.
It should be mentioned at this stage that Rolex have always made watches for women. The reason not much attention has been paid to ladies watches is that men are the main collectors of pre-owned watches, whereas women prefer to be given new ones.
Continuing their association with sporting activities Rolex produced the Explorer range in the 1950s, Lots 87, 270. Based initally on the large bubble-back model it was fitted with a black dial with luminous Arabic quarter hour marks, a triangle at 12, "Mercedes" hands and sweep centre seconds. It must have been during the development period that Rolex supplied the watch to Sir John Hunt's successful Everest expedition, as the Explorer name was registered in January 1953 only a few months before Everest was conquered in May. Explorer II followed in 1970s with 24 hour hand and bezel, Lot 272. A rare variation of the Oyster concept was the introduction of the Milgauss range of watches (lots 334 - 336) which were designed for use in areas of strong magnetic fields such as laboratories and power stations. As a model it did not find many buyers and production ceased in the 1970s, consequently they are keenly sought after today.
Scuba diving was increasing in popularity during the 1950s for which a reliable watch is required to monitor air supply. The Submariner, Lots 5 - 8, filled this requirement perfectly. Already proven by a record dive of over 10,000 feet by Jacques Piccard in a bathyscaphe in 1953, it was guaranteed waterproof to 600 feet. Together with the diving contractor COMEX, Rolex developed the Sea-Dweller, Lot 331, in 1971 for professional use incorporating a gas escape valve to permit trapped helium from the deep-sea oxygen/helium mix to escape during decompression.
With mass international transport gaining in popularity the GMT-Master, Lots 1 - 4, is the watch for the international traveller or business men in international trade to whom the time difference between two countries is important. Developed for the Pan American intercontinental pilots in the 1950s it is still the preferred watch of aviators and was adopted by many NASA astronauts. Jack Swigert's watch of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in April 1970 is displayed at the Rolex head office.
It is a strange phenomenon that quartz controlled watches, Lot 172, with their incredable accuracy of around one second a year only represent less than 10 of the Rolex manufacture, although the company was instrumental in the development of the Beta 21 movement in the 1960s. It seems Rolex customers prefer the idea of the hand-made mechanical movement which today with its fast-oscillating balance is as accurate as any one really needs.
A stainless steel self-winding calendar wristwatch with two time zone indication
SIGNED ROLEX,MODEL OYSTER PERPETUAL GMT-MASTER, MODEL NO. 6542, 1970S
Details
A stainless steel self-winding calendar wristwatch with two time zone indication
Signed Rolex,model Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master, model no. 6542, 1970s
1he nickel plated self-winding movement with 25 jewels, gold alloy balance with micrometer regulation, adjusted to five positions and temperature numbered DN654006, the matt grey dial with luminous dot and baton indexes, Mercedes hands and sweep centre seconds, with additional 24 hour hand, date aperture under magnifying glass, the tonneau case with blue and red rotating bezel with 24 hour indication, screw down winder and screwed back, flexible steel Oyster bracelet and deployant clasp, case, dial and movement signed
39 mm. diam.
Signed Rolex,model Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master, model no. 6542, 1970s
1he nickel plated self-winding movement with 25 jewels, gold alloy balance with micrometer regulation, adjusted to five positions and temperature numbered DN654006, the matt grey dial with luminous dot and baton indexes, Mercedes hands and sweep centre seconds, with additional 24 hour hand, date aperture under magnifying glass, the tonneau case with blue and red rotating bezel with 24 hour indication, screw down winder and screwed back, flexible steel Oyster bracelet and deployant clasp, case, dial and movement signed
39 mm. diam.