Antique 1914 Silver Rolex Admiralty Wrist Watch

Antique 1914 silver Rolex Admiralty wrist watch.

The watch has a Reeberg hand-winding movement, signed Admiralty. The movement is working nicely.

A company called Aegler supplied movements to Wilsdorf & Davis, the founders of Rolex. The movements came from their factory in Rebberg and they registered the Rebberg name as a trade mark.

Movements signed Admiralty are scarcely seen. During World War I and the early 1920s period, Rolex registered several nautical themed names, apparently either not using them, or, as with the Admiralty, only in tiny quantities. These included Lusitania, Aqua and The Sailor King. It is a bit of a mystery why Rolex registered these names when they were rarely used but it could have been that the registrations were for both watches and compasses, indicating a possible expansion into marine instruments.

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Hans Wilsdorf had the Aegler Rebberg movements cased in Switzerland and this particular watch does indeed have import marks for London 1914 together with W&D, the sponsor’s mark for Wilsdorf & Davis, together with the Rolex stamp. After the first World War, silver cases continued to be manufactured in Switzerland but gold Rebberg cases of the same period were made in England by Aaron Dennison in an effort to avoid high import taxes, this was not regarded as necessary with silver cases as the precious metal value was lower.

This particular watch measures 33mm diameter excluding the winding crown and the articulated lugs. Both the bezel and the case back are hinged. The case is in good condition with just slight evidence of an earlier thread through style strap.

The watch lens is in good order.

The dial has some marking but it is acceptable for such an early piece, and still easy to read the time.

A later black leather strap has been fitted.

This item is only available to purchase within the UK due to transit insurance restrictions.

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All of our watches are checked over before listing, and are also checked for accuracy which is usually within around +/- two to three minutes over 24 hours (unless otherwise stated), which is considered respectable for a vintage watch.

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