A stainless steel chronograph wristwatch with unusual case construction

SIGNED ROLEX, MODEL NO. 4099, CASE NO. 583119, 1940S

Details
A stainless steel chronograph wristwatch with unusual case construction
Signed Rolex, model no. 4099, case no. 583119, 1940s
The nickel plated movement jewelled to the centre with gold alloy balance, stamped under the balance 23 with stylised R within a shield, the brushed silvered dial with raised pink gilt alternating baton and Arabic numerals, subsidiary dials for running seconds and elapsed minutes, luminous pink gold hands, outer tachymetric scale with sweep centre seconds operated by two flat buttons in the band, the circular case with flared and faceted downturned lugs, with chamfered bezel and snap on back, case, dial and movement signed
35 mm. diam.

Lot Essay

Due to the difficulty in soldering stainless steel at that time, the lugs on this model have been machined in such a way that they "click" into position in the rim of the case and are held in place by the bezel. One of the difficulties in working with the early stainless steel was that no-one had yet developed a successful method of soldering the material. This restricted the case designers to simple shapes, either rectangular or round, ones that could be either stamped or machined from solid. This very rare form of case construction was an attempt by Rolex case makers to solve the problem.

More from Watches

View All
View All