Reference:1873 - Revision history

Admin: Lint fix: remove duplicate raw source-ID Sources block, keep the auto-expanded version

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	See also the [[Reference:bubbleback\|Bubbleback family index]], [[Reference:Movements\|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets\|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers\|serial numbers by year]].		See also the [[Reference:bubbleback\|Bubbleback family index]], [[Reference:Movements\|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets\|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers\|serial numbers by year]].

	~~== Sources ==~~

	* <code>src-antiquorum-1873-geneva-2024-lot282</code> — Antiquorum, Geneva, 9–10 November 2024, lot 282: Oyster Royal Chronometre, salmon "Scientifical" dial, case 100498, sold CHF 10,625
	* <code>src-antiquorum-1873-hk-2021-lot233</code> — Antiquorum, Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Hong Kong, 25 April 2021, lot 233: Royal, flat back, steel, Extra Prima 17 jewels, case 48634
	* <code>src-boettcher-prima-grades</code> — David Boettcher, "Prima, Extra Prima and Ultra Prima", vintagewatchstraps.com
	* <code>src-hodinkee-bubbleback-collecting</code> — Hodinkee, "Buying, Selling, & Collecting: The Rolex Bubbleback And Why It Still Matters"
	* <code>src-robbreport-bubbleback-collector-guide</code> — Robb Report, "A Collector's Guide to Rolex Bubbleback Watches, From 1931 to the 1950s"
	* <code>src-antiquorum-2765-ny-2009-lot223</code> — Antiquorum, New York, 9 December 2009, lot 217: ref 2765, the near-contemporary manual flat-back Oyster
	* <code>src-rolexforums-wvm-bubbleback-list</code> — RolexForums, "List of Bubbleback models" (user w-v-m), the circulating list that files 1873 as a Bubbleback

	== Sources ==		== Sources ==

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 [[File:Ref 1873 hero.webp|thumb|right|340px|alt=Rolex Oyster Royal 1873 salmon dial, case 100498|Rolex Oyster Royal 1873, case 100498 — salmon dial with black round indexes and subsidiary seconds at 6, on a beaded steel bracelet. Antiquorum Geneva, November 2024.]]
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 that this was one of very few examples to appear publicly in thirty years. The house's own
 archive, which reaches back to 1974, holds exactly these two lots.
 == Sources ==
@@ Line 243: / Line 254: @@
 * [https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-lot-223-217 "Rolex Oyster Chronometer, Ref. 2765, retailed by Murdock's, Cape Town", Antiquorum, 2009-12-09]
 * "List of Bubbleback models (user w-v-m)", RolexForums
 [[Category:Oyster]]
 [[Category:References]]

Admin: Lint fix: canonical Sources heading spacing

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	archive, which reaches back to 1974, holds exactly these two lots.		archive, which reaches back to 1974, holds exactly these two lots.

	==Sources==		== Sources ==

	* <code>src-antiquorum-1873-geneva-2024-lot282</code> — Antiquorum, Geneva, 9–10 November 2024, lot 282: Oyster Royal Chronometre, salmon "Scientifical" dial, case 100498, sold CHF 10,625		* <code>src-antiquorum-1873-geneva-2024-lot282</code> — Antiquorum, Geneva, 9–10 November 2024, lot 282: Oyster Royal Chronometre, salmon "Scientifical" dial, case 100498, sold CHF 10,625

Admin: Import reference 1873 article

2026-08-22T04:41:02Z

Import reference 1873 article

New page

[[File:Ref 1873 hero.webp|thumb|right|340px|alt=Rolex Oyster Royal 1873 salmon dial, case 100498|Rolex Oyster Royal 1873, case 100498 — salmon dial with black round indexes and subsidiary seconds at 6, on a beaded steel bracelet. Antiquorum Geneva, November 2024.]]

The 1873 is one of the rarest references in the early Oyster catalogue, and one of the most
consistently mis-filed. Collector reference lists place it in the 1933 founding group of
Bubblebacks, a sibling of the 1858 with the same three-piece case and the same new Perpetual
rotor. The two examples that have actually reached public auction are neither. Both are
hand-wound, and both have flat casebacks — the 2021 Antiquorum lot says so in its title. The
dial reads Oyster Royal, not Oyster Perpetual.

Antiquorum's own catalogue note on the 2024 Geneva example is the best measure of how thin
the ground is here: the house described it as one of very few examples of the reference to
have appeared publicly in thirty years. The archive bears that out. Two lots, both at
Antiquorum, three years apart. Nothing at Phillips, Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams or
Heritage.

==Core facts==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! detail
! value
|-
| reference
| 1873
|-
| family
| Oyster (manual-wind)
|-
| production
| 1930s; no firm start or end year documented
|-
| case diameter
| 31mm (2024 lot) / 31.5mm (2021 lot)
|-
| case shape
| tonneau
|-
| caseback
| flat, screw-down
|-
| bezel
| smooth, polished
|-
| crystal
| acrylic
|-
| crown
| screw-down
|-
| winding
| manual
|-
| movement
| 17-jewel Extra Prima; 18-jewel chronometer. No caliber number published
|-
| case materials
| stainless steel (both documented examples)
|-
| dial designations
| Oyster Royal; Oyster Royal Chronometre
|-
| notable dial
| salmon "Scientifical" with black round indexes
|-
| documented case numbers
| 48634; 100498
|}

==Where it sits in the line==

Rolex built two parallel populations of Oyster wristwatches through the 1930s and 1940s. One
took the Perpetual rotor and the domed caseback that collectors later nicknamed the
Bubbleback. The other stayed hand-wound and kept a flat back, because there was no rotor to
make room for. Hodinkee's collecting guide to the Bubbleback names this second group directly
— the "flatbacks", manual-wind watches and early chronographs that Rolex was making at the
same time and that get much less attention. The 1873 is one of them.

Within the manual line, "Oyster Royal" is a grade-and-market designation rather than a model
in the modern sense. It sits alongside Oyster Precision, Oyster Chronometer and, on some
references, Oyster Scientific — dial names that told a buyer what timing work the movement had
received. The 1873's two documented examples happen to bracket that range: one is marked
Royal with an Extra Prima movement, the other Oyster Royal Chronometre with an 18-jewel
chronometer-grade movement behind a salmon "Scientifical" dial.

The reference sits close to the 1858 numerically, and that proximity is almost certainly why
it ended up on the Bubbleback lists. Rolex allocated reference numbers by case and market
position, not by movement type, so numerical neighbours in this era are frequently different
kinds of watch. The 2764 and 2765 pair make the same point three hundred numbers further on:
one automatic Bubbleback, one manual flatback, adjacent references, same case diameter.

==Production outline==

Neither documented lot gives a year. Antiquorum dated both examples only to "circa 1930s",
and no dealer listing, editorial article or book citation surfaced that narrows it. The 1933
start year that circulates for this reference comes from the same collector list that assigns
it to the wrong family, and carries no independent support.

Two case numbers are on record — 48634 on the 2021 Hong Kong example and 100498 on the 2024
Geneva example — which is a spread of roughly fifty thousand and two data points. That is
enough to say the reference ran for a while and not enough to say anything else. No production
figures exist in any published source.

Both documented examples are stainless steel. Whether Rolex built the 1873 in gold or
two-tone, as it did across much of the contemporary Oyster range, is simply not known from
the surfaced record.

==Movement notes==

Both documented movements are manually wound, and the two lots describe different grades.

The Hong Kong 2021 example carried an Extra Prima with 17 jewels. The Geneva 2024 example
carried an 18-jewel chronometer-grade movement. Neither Antiquorum catalogue names a caliber
number, and no other published source supplies one.

Naming a caliber here would be a guess. "Extra Prima" is a grade, not a caliber. David
Boettcher documents the hierarchy at vintagewatchstraps.com: Prima, Extra
Prima and Ultra Prima were Rolex and Aegler designations separating otherwise comparable
movements by how many positions and temperatures they had been adjusted in, with "Ultra
Prima" registered as a mark by Hans Wilsdorf in 1930. Reading a grade word as a caliber
number is a recurring error in dealer listings for early Rolex, and the 1873 has too few
documented examples to absorb a guess. Until a movement photograph or a Rolex parts document
supplies a caliber, the grade and the jewel count are the record.

==Dial map==

Two dials are documented, one described at length in the catalogue and one legible only from
the lot photography.

[[File:Ref 1873 dial-detail-salmon.webp|thumb|right|300px|alt=Rolex 1873 salmon dial detail showing Oyster Royal and Chronometre text|The salmon dial in detail: ROLEX OYSTER ROYAL over CHRONOMETRE, black round indexes, blued steel hands and a sunk subsidiary seconds register at 6.]]

The salmon "Scientifical" dial on the Geneva 2024 example is the reference's signature.
Antiquorum put it in the lot title and described it as an extremely rare original, with black
round indexes and original hands, on a 31mm steel case numbered 100498. Salmon dials from this
period are sought in their own right, and one on a reference that surfaces roughly once a
decade is an uncommon combination.

The catalogue photography settles what the word is doing there. The dial reads ROLEX OYSTER
ROYAL over a CHRONOMETRE marking above the subsidiary seconds, and nothing else — "Scientifical"
appears in Antiquorum's lot title and in quotation marks, not on the dial. The house's own
subtitle for the lot calls it a salmon "dot" index dial. The term is best read as a descriptor
the trade has attached to this dial layout rather than as period Rolex dial text.

The word is not confined to this reference. "Oyster Scientific" is reported as one of several
dial markings used on the ref 2765, a near-contemporary manual Oyster with the same flat-back
construction, so the vocabulary travelled. What has not been shown is a photographed dial
carrying either spelling: the 2765 attribution rests on dealer listings rather than on
catalogue photography, and the one 1873 dial that can be examined does not carry the word.
Whether Rolex ever printed Scientific or Scientifical on a dial, or whether the term belongs
entirely to the trade, is unresolved.

[[File:Ref 1873 dial-variant-two-tone.webp|thumb|right|300px|alt=Rolex Oyster Royal 1873 two-tone silvered dial, case 48634|Two-tone silvered dial with gold Arabic 12, 3 and 9, applied gold indexes and subsidiary seconds at 6, on a riveted Oyster bracelet. Antiquorum Hong Kong, April 2021, case 48634.]]

The Hong Kong 2021 example carried a patinated dial with original hands, and the catalogue
says no more than that. The lot photography fills in the layout: a two-tone silvered dial with
a sunk outer track, gold-toned Arabic numerals at 12, 3 and 9, applied bâton indexes at the
remaining hours, luminous plots around the chapter ring, and a subsidiary seconds register at
6, with blued steel hands carrying luminous inserts. It is a markedly different watch from the
salmon example — dress-sector layout against plain dot indexes — on the same reference number.

That is the whole documented dial range for the reference. Anything more specific about 1873
dial configurations would be extrapolation from sibling references.

==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==

[[File:Ref 1873 case-profile.webp|thumb|right|300px|alt=Rolex Oyster Royal 1873 three-quarter view of case 100498|Three-quarter view of case 100498, showing the tonneau flank and the screw-down crown.]]

Stainless steel tonneau with a screw-down caseback and screw-down crown, smooth polished
bezel, acrylic crystal. Measured at 31mm in the 2024 catalogue and 31.5mm in the 2021
catalogue — ordinary measurement-method variance across houses on a tonneau case, the same
half-millimetre spread that follows the 31/32mm Bubblebacks around.

The caseback is flat. The 2021 Hong Kong lot title puts "FLAT BACK" in capitals, which is
Antiquorum flagging the trait as identifying rather than incidental, and neither lot
description mentions a dome, a rotor or self-winding anywhere. On a reference this scarce,
that is the first thing to check on any example offered for sale: a domed back on a 1873 means
either the wrong caseback or the wrong reference.

==Bracelets, end links, and clasps==

The 2021 Hong Kong example was accompanied by a Rolex stainless steel rivet bracelet measuring
roughly 170mm overall. Rivet-link Oyster bracelets are period-plausible for a 1930s steel
Oyster, but a bracelet dates itself and not the watch head, and Antiquorum did not present it
as original delivery. It counts as accompanying hardware and nothing more. No end-link or
clasp reference is documented for the 1873 anywhere in the published record.

==Auction record==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Venue
! Date
! Lot
! Case No
! Dial
! Movement
! Result
|-
| Antiquorum, Hong Kong
| 2021-04-25
| 233
| 48634
| Patinated, original hands
| Extra Prima, 17 jewels
| Est. HKD 40,000–60,000; result not published
|-
| Antiquorum, Geneva
| 2024-11-09
| 282
| 100498
| Salmon "Scientifical", black round indexes
| 18-jewel chronometer
| CHF 10,625 (est. CHF 8,000–12,000)
|}

The Geneva 2024 result is the only realised price on record for the reference. CHF 10,625
against an CHF 8,000–12,000 estimate is a mid-estimate result, which for a reference this
scarce says less about the 1873 than it might seem to: with two lots in the public record
there is no series to read a trend from. The Hong Kong 2021 estimate of HKD 40,000–60,000
converts to roughly CHF 4,800–7,200, so the house was pricing the Extra Prima example well
below where it later pitched the salmon-dial chronometer.

The more useful number is the one Antiquorum wrote in prose rather than in the estimate line —
that this was one of very few examples to appear publicly in thirty years. The house's own
archive, which reaches back to 1974, holds exactly these two lots.

==Sources==

* <code>src-antiquorum-1873-geneva-2024-lot282</code> — Antiquorum, Geneva, 9–10 November 2024, lot 282: Oyster Royal Chronometre, salmon "Scientifical" dial, case 100498, sold CHF 10,625
* <code>src-antiquorum-1873-hk-2021-lot233</code> — Antiquorum, Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Hong Kong, 25 April 2021, lot 233: Royal, flat back, steel, Extra Prima 17 jewels, case 48634
* <code>src-boettcher-prima-grades</code> — David Boettcher, "Prima, Extra Prima and Ultra Prima", vintagewatchstraps.com
* <code>src-hodinkee-bubbleback-collecting</code> — Hodinkee, "Buying, Selling, & Collecting: The Rolex Bubbleback And Why It Still Matters"
* <code>src-robbreport-bubbleback-collector-guide</code> — Robb Report, "A Collector's Guide to Rolex Bubbleback Watches, From 1931 to the 1950s"
* <code>src-antiquorum-2765-ny-2009-lot223</code> — Antiquorum, New York, 9 December 2009, lot 217: ref 2765, the near-contemporary manual flat-back Oyster
* <code>src-rolexforums-wvm-bubbleback-list</code> — RolexForums, "List of Bubbleback models" (user w-v-m), the circulating list that files 1873 as a Bubbleback

== Sources ==

* [https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-ref-1873-oyster-royal-chronometre-lot-372-282 "ROLEX, SWITZERLAND, REF. 1873, OYSTER ROYAL CHRONOMETRE, SALMON SCIENTIFICAL DIAL, STAINLESS STEEL", Antiquorum, 2024-11-09]
* [https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-ref-1873-royal-lot-338-233 "ROLEX REF 1873, ROYAL, FLAT BACK STEEL", Antiquorum, 2021-04-25]
* [https://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/blogprima.php David Boettcher, "Prima, Extra Prima and Ultra Prima", vintagewatchstraps.com]
* [https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-rolex-bubbleback-and-why-it-still-matters "Buying, Selling, & Collecting: The Rolex Bubbleback And Why It Still Matters", Hodinkee]
* [https://robbreport.com/style/watch-collector/lists/rolex-bubbleback-watches-collector-guide-1931-1950s-1235893131/ "A Collector's Guide to Rolex Bubbleback Watches, From 1931 to the 1950s", Robb Report]
* [https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/rolex-lot-223-217 "Rolex Oyster Chronometer, Ref. 2765, retailed by Murdock's, Cape Town", Antiquorum, 2009-12-09]
* "List of Bubbleback models (user w-v-m)", RolexForums
== Related references ==

* [[Reference:2765|Oyster Chronometer 2765]] — manual flat-back sibling, shares the "Scientific" dial vocabulary
* [[Reference:2574|Oyster Royal 2574]] — pre-war manual Oyster, boy's size
* [[Reference:1858|Bubbleback 1858]] — the first Oyster Perpetual, 1933
* [[Reference:2240|Bubbleback 2240]] — self-winding contemporary
* [[Reference:2764|Bubbleback 2764]] — Cal. 620N "Super Precision"

See also the [[Reference:bubbleback|Bubbleback family index]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].

[[Category:Oyster]]
[[Category:References]]