After 10-hours of being submerged in the icy waters, the watch came up still ticking. The most famous remains persuading a young British swimmer, Mercedes Gleitze to wear one of his Oyster models on a lanyard around her neck as she attempted to be the first person to swim across the English Channel in 1927. Not one to shy away from promotion and advertising, Wilsdorf capitalized on this aspect of his timepieces in a series of marketing stunts. Not only did the system of screwing the bezel, case back and crown against the middle case form an impenetrable barrier against the usual debris, it was so effective that it also provided a level of waterproofing never seen before. With the arrival of the Oyster, the brainchild of Rolex founder, Hans Wilsdorf, all of that was to change. They were far more exposed to the elements than pocket watches and the earliest pieces allowed too much everyday detritus to enter the case and damage the caliber. However, the usefulness of a model that could be worn on the arm was established during wartime, but the first examples proved relatively fragile. Dirt, dust and moisture have always been among the biggest enemies of watch movements, and so keeping a pocket watch tucked away inside the wearer’s clothing when not in use helped safeguard its delicate internal components. Not so much for their practicality, but for the level of protection they afforded. Beyond even that though, it has also formed the backbone for almost everything Rolex has created since – and solved one of the main problems facing any mechanical watchmaker: water resistance.īefore the Oyster case’s introduction, pocket watches were very much the only timepiece men used. This relatively simple innovation, one which has gone largely unchanged for the last 90+ years, did more than anything before or since to popularize the wristwatch. The brand’s products have truly been to the highest, lowest, hottest, and coldest places on Earth, handling with ease the most hostile environments the planet can offer. And key to much of their success can be attributed to an invention dreamt up all the way back in 1926: the Oyster case. Perhaps more than anything else, the unassailable reputation of Rolex watches rests on their ability to withstand the extremes. Rather than having to delicately handle and only occasionally wear a Rolex watch, Rolex has designed their product to be strong and durable, while maintaining that level of luxury that has come to be expected. That said, I have a riveted C&I bracelet dating to 1970 on an old Submariner that is still doing just fine, despite a healthy amount of stretch.Rolex watches have come to represent a coupling of luxury and technological innovation. Of course, neither the Oris nor the Tudor have actual rivets, which were a pain to size and not as sturdy as modern screwed links. It captures a true vintage flavor that suits the watch well, though I wish the lug width wasn’t 22 millimeters and it’s still not as light as the old C&I riveted ones of the late ‘60s. Similarly, the rivet-style bracelet on the Tudor Black Bay is also a vast improvement over the first bracelet offered on the popular retro diver. The rivet-style bracelet Oris offers with its excellent Divers SixtyFive gets it right, going from 20 millimeters at the lugs to a perfect 14 at the clasp, with a stepped-down taper at each link. The way the bracelets on so many 1960s watches widened out at the lugs accentuated the lines of the watch itself and the narrowed clasps were comfortable and unobtrusive. They’ve become too wide, too beefy and don’t taper gracefully at the clasp the way the old ones did. Aesthetically, many new bracelets miss the mark too.
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