Reference:1490

Prince → 1490

The 1490 is the canonical Brancard Prince — the rectangular Art-Deco "stretcher" Rolex that ran from the 1928 Prince launch into the mid-1940s. It carries an Aegler shaped movement in chronometer-grade finishing, sub-seconds at six on a duo-dial, and a flared case profile that reads at arm's length as obviously a Prince and obviously not anything else Rolex was making at the time. Surfaced in stainless steel, in 9K, 14K, and 18K gold, in pink-gold and bi-color "Tiger Stripe" two-tones, and in one documented platinum example, the 1490 is the most heavily catalogued of the Prince references and the cleanest entry point for collecting the line.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	1490
family	Prince (rectangular Art-Deco doctor's watch)
production	approximately 1928–1945
case shape	rectangular flared "Brancard" stretcher
case dimensions	approx. 36–37 mm × 22–23 mm body; 42–43 mm × 23 mm with horns
case construction	three-piece, polished
crystal	acrylic, plexiglass step-edge
crown	push-pull, signed Rolex (gold crown on gold cases; steel crown on steel cases)
lug style	integrated flared, period-strap fit
bezel	smooth, polished
movement family	Aegler shaped: Cal. 300 / Cal. 350 / Cal. 7¾′′′ T.S. 300
movement grades	Prima, Extra Prima, Ultra Prima (all documented on 1490s)
jewels	15 (Prima/Extra Prima) or 17–18 (Extra Prima/Ultra Prima)
beat rate	18,000 vph
power reserve	approximately 50 hours (Cal. 300 base); ~58 hours cited for related Cal. 877
balance	bimetallic (early), monometallic (Ultra Prima T.S. 300)
hairspring	Breguet overcoil
escapement	lever, lateral on Ultra Prima
adjustments	6 positions (Extra Prima / Ultra Prima); some catalogs cite 4 positions on early examples
chronometer dial designation	"Chronometer" or "Observatory" — corresponds to Extra Prima / Ultra Prima grade
dial layout	duo-dial with sub-seconds register at six
price band (hammer, last 35 years)	CHF 7,500 (1990) → CHF 24,000–63,000 (1995–2019, gold and double-signed steel) → GBP 32,500 (platinum, 2017) → USD 17,800 (2023, 18K)

Where it sits in the line

The Prince family launched in 1928 as Rolex's bid for the men's chronometer market, built around an Aegler-patented shaped movement that put the winding barrel at one end and the balance at the other. The first Prince references are the smaller 971 and its siblings, with cleaner straight-edged rectangular cases. The 1490 is what the line evolves into: a larger, more dramatic flared case, the same chronometer pedigree, and the marketing thesis that ran from the late 1920s through the 1930s under the slogan "the watch for men of distinction," documented on a 1930 Rolex advertisement reproduced by Rolex Magazine.

The Prince and the Oyster are running on parallel tracks through the 1930s. The Oyster is a waterproof case patent and a movement-housing problem; the Prince is a chronometer-grade movement and a case-shape problem. Both are commercial successes through the decade. The Oyster Perpetual launches in 1931 on the Bubbleback references and absorbs most of Rolex's catalog momentum from the mid-1930s onward. The Prince keeps going — the 1490 in particular — but its share of the catalog narrows. By the time the late-1940s Oyster Perpetual platform is dominant, the Prince has tapered out, with the latest documented 1490 carrying a 1947 caseback dedication on a 14K example. The Prince does not return to the Rolex catalog until the 2005 Cellini Prince revival, which is a different watch on a different platform and not part of the 1490 story.

Brancard, or just Prince?

A naming dispute runs through the literature. Auction houses uniformly call the 1490 a Brancard — Phillips, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Antiquorum, and Christie's all use the word in their catalog titles for the reference. Editorial sources are split. Michael Friedberg's 2001 Timezone article assigns the Brancard name specifically to the earlier reference 971, treating the 1490 as a separate larger Prince. Coronet Magazine's 2021 doctor's-watch piece follows Friedberg.

The reconciliation most consistent with published evidence is that 971 was the first Brancard — the earliest version of the flared stretcher case — and the 1490 is the larger evolution of the same case shape. Both qualify as Brancard cases by their flared profile. Modern auction-catalog convention treats the 1490 as the headline Brancard reference, and that convention dominates collector search. The reference number is unambiguous; the nickname is contested. Buyers should be aware that "Rolex Prince Brancard" in a modern auction listing means a 1490; in pre-2001 collector writing it may have meant a 971 instead.

The case — Brancard stretcher

The 1490 case is a three-piece rectangular structure in the flared "stretcher" form — Brancard is French for stretcher, a reference to the curved, elongated profile that reads like an art-deco interpretation of a hospital gurney rather than a hard-edged box. The body is roughly 36–37 mm long by 22–23 mm wide; with the horns the measurement runs to 42–43 mm long by 23 mm wide. The discrepancy across catalog sources is consistent with the convention each house uses — Bonhams has historically measured the bezel only (yielding 22 × 34 mm or 22 × 35 mm), while Phillips and Sotheby's measure to the horn ends (yielding 26 × 43 mm or 23 × 42 mm). Both forms are accurate descriptions of the same watch.

The flared profile is not subtle. The case curves outward at the lug ends and back toward the centre, giving the 1490 a wrist presence considerably larger than its dimensions suggest, particularly on a period-correct 16 mm strap. The lugs are integrated into the case rather than soldered or spring-bar drilled — a one-piece flared structure that takes a strap on through-pins. The crystal is acrylic with a step-edge profile, period-typical for shaped cases of the era.

The crown is push-pull and signed Rolex. Gold cases carry gold crowns; steel cases carry steel Rolex crowns. A steel crown on a gold case is a service compromise — period-correct in execution sense but not original to the watch.

Case materials

The 1490 is the most material-promiscuous of the Prince references. The surfaced auction record documents:

Stainless steel — the most common configuration, including the 1937 Bucherer-double-signed example at Sotheby's and a 1936 example at Bonhams. Stainless 1490s typically clear at the lower end of the reference's price band, around GBP 3,500–4,000 in current auction practice, except where double-signed by a major retailer (the Beyer-double-signed Phillips example hammered CHF 62,500 in 2019).
9K yellow gold — Glasgow-assayed 1930s examples are well-represented at Bonhams and Antiquorum. Two 9K examples carry case numbers around 13,000 and 14,000 in the Glasgow-1930 hallmark.
9K bi-color (yellow + white gold) — documented at Antiquorum 2006 lot 324, Glasgow 1931.
10K yellow gold — added to the documented material list by collector reporting on VintageRolexForum thread 28392; not in the auction-catalog corpus.
14K yellow gold — documented in the T. Eaton 1/4 Century Club examples (Antiquorum 2010, c.1945).
18K yellow gold — multiple Sotheby's and Phillips lots, including Phillips NY080223/92 from 2023 (case 13,009, c.1933, hammer USD 17,780).
18K pink/rose gold — documented in Antiquorum 1990 lot 278 (pink-gold/steel two-tone).
18K bi-color "Tiger Stripe" (yellow + white gold) — Antiquorum 1995 lot 274 (CHF 24,150) and Bonhams August 2020 lot 7Y (estimate GBP 9,000–12,000). The Tiger Stripe nickname is also applied by some catalogs to other Prince references (notably the 971A); it is not exclusive to the 1490.
Steel + 18K pink gold two-tone — Antiquorum 2006 Mondani lot 46 (case 17,365, 1935, hammer CHF 38,940).
Steel + 9K yellow gold two-tone — Antiquorum 2009 lot 461 (case 1010 / movement 76,529, Glasgow 1930–31, hammer CHF 19,200).
Platinum — one documented example only, Bonhams December 2017 lot 135Y, c.1930, hammer GBP 32,500. Platinum 1490s are at the absolute top of the reference's rarity hierarchy.

The movement

The 1490 runs on an Aegler shaped movement, manufactured in Bienne by H. Wilsdorf's exclusive supplier (a relationship that remained a supplier arrangement until Rolex purchased Aegler outright from the Borer family in April 2004, per Tim Mosso's Quill & Pad reporting). The Aegler shaped-movement family was patented in 1927 by Hans Wilsdorf jointly with Aegler, and the Prince was the first commercial Rolex to deploy it.

Caliber attribution for the 1490 is the area where literature gets messiest. Three named calibers appear in surfaced 1490 auction catalogs:

Cal. 300 — 15 jewels, 18,000 vph, approximately 50 hours of power reserve, produced 1928–1937. This is the attribution given in Rolex Magazine's analysis of an Eaton 1/4 Century 1490, and it is the Watch-Wiki attribution for the base Prince caliber. Cal. 300 is identical in architecture to the Gruen Cal. 877 used in the Gruen Techni-Quadron — the two are sibling movements in the Aegler shaped-movement family, sold under different brands. Some early Prince literature lists "Cal. 877" for the Rolex Prince; this is a misattribution traceable to the Gruen-Rolex sibling relationship and should be excluded from canonical 1490 caliber listings, per Oren Hartov's Analog/Shift clarification.
Cal. 350 — 15 jewels (some examples 18 jewels). Documented on the Phillips Beyer-double-signed steel 1490 (CH080319/17, c.1930) and on Phillips NY080223/92 (18K, c.1933). The 350 appears alongside 300 across the surfaced corpus without obvious dating segregation; both calibers run inside the same case reference.
Cal. 7¾′′′ T.S. 300 — Très Soigné, 18 jewels, lateral lever escapement, monometallic balance with micrometer regulator, Breguet overcoil hairspring, rhodium-plated, adjusted in 6 positions, produced 1932–1938. This is the Ultra Prima movement variant, documented on the Mondani Collection 1490 at Antiquorum May 2006 lot 46 (case 17,365, 1935). The T.S. 300 is the highest grade of the shaped-movement family deployed in the 1490.

Movement grading is a separate axis from caliber number. Aegler / Rolex used a tiered finishing hierarchy on the Prince calibers — Prima, Extra Prima, Ultra Prima — corresponding broadly to ascending levels of regulation, hand-finishing, and chronometer testing. Surfaced 1490 examples are documented across all three tiers:

Prima: a Cooke & Kelvey (Calcutta) steel example c.1930 sold by Rolex Passion Market.
Extra Prima (the most common grade on 1490s): the Sotheby's Bucherer 1937 (17 jewels), the Heritage 5177-60121 18K example labeled "Extra Prima Observatory" 15 jewels, and most published Bonhams examples.
Ultra Prima: the Antiquorum Mondani 1935 example with T.S. 300 caliber, the fabsuisse.com Beguin example, and forum-confirmed examples on VRF thread 28392.

The Chronometer dial designation corresponds to Extra Prima or Ultra Prima grading, not to Prima. A Prima-grade movement does not earn the dial mark. This is a movement-grade-to-dial-mark relationship rather than a per-watch certification ritual. Some 1490 dials carry "Observatory" instead of "Chronometer," reflecting the Kew-Teddington observatory testing pedigree that Rolex deployed alongside the Swiss Bureaux Officiels Suisse de Contrôle. The Kew protocol was a 45-day test against the Swiss bureau's 15 days; James Dowling has cited Rolex pass rates of 136 out of 145 Class A submissions in the 1940s and 1950s. The 1914 Class A Kew certificate that Rolex commonly cites as their first official chronometer rating was issued for an earlier ladies' wristwatch movement — the Prince calibers extend the observatory-testing lineage from 1928 forward, but the 1914 milestone is older Rolex hardware than the Prince family.

There is no shock protection in any meaningful modern sense on a 1490. Incabloc and KIF systems arrived at Rolex movements in the late 1940s; the Prince predates that work. The Superbalance is a stability design with self-compensating Breguet overcoil, well-engineered for vintage timekeeping but vulnerable to the kind of impact a modern wearer might inflict by accident. Owners should treat the watch as a pre-shock-protection piece.

Dial variants

The 1490 dial is a duo-dial: two visually separated registers on the same dial plate, with the hours-and-minutes track in the upper portion and the small-seconds register in the lower (six o'clock) position. The seconds register has its own dedicated short hand running on its own pinion, driven by the fourth-wheel-at-six gear-train configuration that defines a sub-seconds layout (as opposed to the center-seconds layout used on some later Rolex references). The visual effect is two clean concentric tracks rather than the busier read of a single combined dial.

Dial signatures documented on surfaced 1490 examples:

Rolex single-signed — silvered base, Arabic numerals (most common), with "Rolex," "Oyster" wordmark omitted (the 1490 is not an Oyster), "Chronometer" designation on Extra Prima / Ultra Prima examples.
Rolex single-signed with Observatory designation — Heritage 5177-60121 (Extra Prima Observatory 15j, 18K c.1930s).
Bucherer double-signed — Sotheby's Watches Online July 2019 lot 13. The Bucherer-Rolex retailer relationship dates from 1924 per Sotheby's catalog notes.
Chronométrie Beyer Zurich double-signed — Phillips CH080319/17, the Beyer-Zurich 1998-renovation NOS example.
Philippe Beguin (Geneva) double-signed — fabsuisse.com Beguin example, original Beguin-signed presentation box also documented.
Cooke & Kelvey (Calcutta) double-signed — Rolex Passion Market c.1930 example, with the original Cooke & Kelvey box.
T. Eaton 1/4 Century Club — Eaton's of Toronto issued 1490 examples to employees on 25-year service anniversaries, with a dial signature that replaced the Rolex name with "Eaton 1/4 Century Club" text. Almost uniquely among Rolex production, the Eaton 1490 dial carries no external Rolex branding. The earliest documented Eaton 1490 is from the mid-1930s; the latest is c.1945–1947, including the Antiquorum 2010 Walter Earnshaw example covering his 1920–1945 service.

Dial colors documented are silvered (overwhelmingly the most common), two-tone sector-style (rare), and black duo-dial (rare). Hand styles include blued steel Breguet, blued steel pencil, blued steel "Moderne" pointed-baton (Bonhams platinum), blued steel "épée" (Antiquorum Mondani Ultra Prima), and gold leaf/feuille hands on gold case examples. Sub-seconds hands are blued steel; refinished sub-seconds hands are the most commonly observed service intervention on 1490s.

Period-original 1490 dials show light foxing in the small-seconds well — a glassy-perfect dial on a watch this age is a refinish. Refinished dials produced by mid-twentieth century specialist firms (UK, Swiss, North American) are difficult to distinguish from original without a side-by-side comparison. Original dials with even patina, matched hand aging, and period-correct printing carry a meaningful premium within the reference's price range.

Authentication

The 1490 has enough surfaced examples and enough documented-correct configurations that authentication is comparatively tractable for a watch this old. The two strongest signals:

Movement-to-dial pairing. A 1490 should carry an Aegler shaped movement — Cal. 300, Cal. 350, or Cal. 7¾′′′ T.S. 300 — with hand-finishing consistent with the Prima / Extra Prima / Ultra Prima grade indicated by the dial designation. A Schild base movement, a Peseux base movement, or any non-Aegler-family caliber under the dial of a 1490 case is a transplant or a franken (the Prince Elegant 2771 thread on VRF discusses this exact pattern with non-Aegler internals in a Prince case). A Cal. 300 base movement under a "Chronometer" dial designation is plausible if the grade of the actual movement is Extra Prima; a Cal. 300 base under an Ultra Prima dial-mark with no observable T.S. 300 architecture is suspicious.

Caseback engraving style. Period-correct 1490 casebacks are stamped at the factory. Hand-engraved caseback markings are the standard tell of post-factory work — either a re-engraving on a worn caseback or a replacement caseback engraved by a service shop. The exception is owner-presentation engraving on the inside or back of the caseback (recipient names, dates, club affiliations) — these are common on Eaton 1/4 Century Club examples and on retailer-presentation pieces, and they sit alongside the factory stamping rather than replacing it.

The crown signature is a useful third check on cased examples. A gold case should carry a gold crown signed Rolex; a steel case should carry a steel crown signed Rolex. A steel crown on a gold case indicates a service replacement — period-correct in pattern but not original to the watch as built. Movement-only purchases (without case) should be cross-checked against the Aegler-family architecture before pairing with any 1490 case body.

Auction record

The 1490 has a dense and genuinely informative auction history, with Antiquorum, Phillips, Sotheby's, and Bonhams all carrying multiple lots over the past three decades. Selected hammer prices sketch the price band:

year	venue	configuration	hammer
1990	Antiquorum	Pink-gold/steel two-tone	CHF 7,475
1995	Antiquorum	18ct white + yellow Tiger Stripe	CHF 24,150
2006	Antiquorum	Steel + pink gold, T.S. 300 Ultra Prima (Mondani)	CHF 38,940
2006	Antiquorum	9K bi-color, Glasgow 1931	CHF 21,240
2009	Antiquorum	Steel + 9K yellow, Glasgow 1930–31	CHF 19,200
2017	Bonhams	Platinum	GBP 32,500
2019	Phillips	Beyer-double-signed steel NOS (1928 stock, 1998 found)	CHF 62,500
2023	Phillips	18K yellow gold, c.1933	USD 17,780
2023	Bonhams	Steel, c.1936	GBP 3,584
2025	Bonhams	9K yellow, Glasgow 1930	GBP 4,096

Steel examples without a major retailer double-signature clear the market in the GBP 3,500–4,500 band as of the 2023–2025 auction record. Steel with Beyer or Bucherer doubles compounds that several times over, with the 2019 Phillips Beyer NOS standing as the price ceiling. Gold examples vary widely by grade: 9K examples sit in the GBP 4,000–6,000 band; 14K and 18K examples track higher; bi-color and pink-gold examples typically clear above the comparable single-material gold prices. The 2017 platinum is its own data point.

The Sotheby's L19070 lot 42 (18ct YG, serial 13,009, Glasgow 1933) and the Phillips NY080223 lot 92 (18K YG, case 13,009, c.1933) carry the same case number and may be the same physical watch resold rather than two examples — verify before quoting them as distinct provenance.

Sources