A few questions about 40's Rolex watches.

[mechachia]

I just bought two vintage Rolex watches, a 1936 Oyster Royal, and a Victory of undetermined year. I have a modern Datejust and am familiar with newer Rolex models, but it's been next to impossible to find information on anything prior to 1950, so hopefully someone here can answer a few questions.

- Is there a comprehensive source of info on pre-1950 Rolex somewhere that I'm missing?

- Do the Victory serial numbers fit the same scheme as other Rolex models? If so, mine would have been made in 1947, but that seems late as I've read that they were marketed largely to Canadian soldiers going off to WWII. I know Rolex outsourced the cases on these, so maybe they had a different SN scheme?

- What kind of buckle came on the leather straps of that era? I've seen a few ads from the time posted on this forum, but none show the buckles. This probably varies a lot, like everything else from that era seems to, but were the style pictured in the attachment, with the soldered on crown logo, used at that time?

- The Victory, as I understand it, was never designed to be water resistant, correct?

- But the Oyster was, and I'd like to make it so again, if possible. It looks like it has the same style o-ring on the back as current models, and the acrylic crystal I presume seals the same way - with pressure from the bezel. Does the stem/stem tube use rubber gaskets? I found a reference to a metal gasket the preceded the twinlok crown.

Thanks to anyone who can shed light on this very hazy subject.