Rolex Eaton watch Ref #1011 BOMBAY LUGS

ROLEX REF #1011 BOMBAY LUGS 14K SOLID YELLOW GOLD AUTOMATIC MEN'S WATCH

The Eaton departments store in Canada was a legendary retailer for over most of the 20th Century but eventually went into bankruptcy in 1999, after 130 years in business. One of the lasting legacy of their history is the Quarter Century Club watches made by Rolex for their long service awards. The watches are rare in the fact that it is perhaps the only a few instances were Rolex allowed their watches to be rebranded with another companies name and certainly the only one in the post war era. These were amongst the only ROLEX watches produced and allowed by ROLEX to appear without the name ROLEX on the dial. This watch also retains the original ROLEX winding crown.

These watches were presented to employees of Canada's T. Eaton department store who has served twenty-five-year with the company.  It comes in different varieties depending on when the watch was given away. There are a few models from early Pocket watches, to Prince series ref Ref 1490 in the 1930s, ref 2927 in the 1950s, to a manual winding model ref 6022, 6222, 6422, in the 1950s and this automatic model ref 1011 from 1960s, 5031 from the 1970s. For the ladies, there is ref 4554.

This is one of the last series Eaton 14k century club with the desirable automatic movement, and desirable bombe lug with original Dauphine style hands and sweep seconds. The watch is 33mm in diameter and like most Eaton watch is in solid 14k. gold. This Quarter century club ROLEX dating to 1963! This particular model uses the (rarest) reference 1011 solid gold ROLEX OYSTER case with inwardly curved BOMBE lugs. The movement is the original caliber 1520. Ths watch has shown sign of usage and they are aged marking at the dial as the watch is 53 years old...

Not many collectors want to collect these watches owing to the lack of Rolex on the dial and the popularity of the Rolex sports watches. This automatic watch has been on my bucket list for a long time and I have finally found one at very good price, after selling my Seiko 6246, as part of my watch collecting rules of one out one in...

Please see also : http://www.reocities.com/RodeoDrive/Mall/3288/QuarterCentury.htm