Quote:
Originally Posted by R.W.T.
The Royal has been restored...it's pretty late for that movement but...Rolex did strange things.
|
They certainly did. There seems to be very little consistency among the pre-1950 watches.
In terms of the restoration, does the design of the Royal dial seem like it's likely the same as it originally looked? It's simpler than most Rolex dials I've seen from that era. Most of them have numbers more like those on the Victory. As I understand it, dial restorers don't always make it look the same as the original design and will just go with the closest thing they've got in stock. Also, that watch does have a reference number on the outside of the back. It's marked with 2280 and a crown logo at the top, and the SN at the bottom.
I did some searching yesterday and I did find a couple examples of watches that said "shock resisting" on the dials, but that had balance jewel mounts that looked like the ones on these watches. So either Rolex had a shock resistant mount that looked like that at one point, or those watches had been modified with a non-shock resistant mount, which seems unlikely. I guess they could be frankenwatches with older movements and newer dials? In any case, I'll take a close up photo of that mount when I actually have them in hand.
The worst case scenario I'm imagining for water resistance is one where I'm hiking up a river bed, slip, and my arm goes into the water, or I slip on the bank getting out of my kayak and my arm goes in the water. So that's the sort of accidental exposure I'd like them to be able to handle. No swimming or diving.