Maybe the first Rolex product sold in the US? Abercrombie & Fitch Oyster

[powerfunk]

I recently snagged this on Ebay. I believe this may have been the first model of watch made by Rolex to ever be sold in the US? Maybe the "Turtle Timers" and "Turtle Perpetuals" sold by the Zell Bros. in Oregon came first, but if it's not one of those then I don't know what it would be (Rolex was relatively late to the US market because of their agreement with Gruen not to sell Aegler-based watches there).

Ebay's new "authentication" process was interesting; at first they confirmed that the case was Rolex but said the movement and dial weren't. I responded, saying that I knew they weren't branded "Rolex" but as long as they didn't have any particular reason to think they were counterfeit I was fine with it. Instead of responding to that, they apparently just marked my watch as "customized" and sent it on to me. I guess "customized" was their only option in between "counterfeit" and "Rolex." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The watch is obviously small (32mm) but still wearable. It's running OK and the winding actually feels good; I was expecting it to feel much crustier. On with the pics:





Here's a movement shot from the Ebay listing:


And here's a similar Oyster Watch Co.-signed movement shown in a 1930's Oyster owned by Derek Dier, who calls the movement "early and rare, made by ROLEX":


The blue travel/shipping box that Ebay sent it in wasn't bad:

[rmagoo57]

Only thing I know about your watch is that it looks familiar. The case looks exactly like my Shinola!

[Nick9]

Nice catch.

You would think an eBay authenticator would know a private label Rolex when they see one.

Looks rock solid and all Rolex to me.

[miamiclay]

Love an eBay find, love a cushion case, very nice indeed!

[zapokee]

Looks great on your wrist! Wouldn't have guessed it's 32. It wears bigger.

[Old Expat Beast]

Excellent find Rob

[L.K Johnson]

Love the hefty crown!!

[Mark020]

Originally Posted by Nick9

Nice catch.

You would think an eBay authenticator would know a private label Rolex when they see one.

Looks rock solid and all Rolex to me.

I'm not surprised

[brandrea]

Nice Rob

[powerfunk]

Thanks guys! Seems to be keeping time about as well as I could expect (losing about 1 min. per day)

[jlovda]

I grew up in Chicago and my uncle was a big A&F fan. (He used to call it VL&A, I don't know why). In the early 60's when I was in high school I remember seeing a Rolex Explorer on display at their Wabash St. store. My uncle was really into the fancy Italian shotguns.

[Kingface66]

Originally Posted by jlovda

I grew up in Chicago and my uncle was a big A&F fan. (He used to call it VL&A, I don't know why). In the early 60's when I was in high school I remember seeing a Rolex Explorer on display at their Wabash St. store. My uncle was really into the fancy Italian shotguns.

VL&A was bought out by A&F, after years of being competitors

[Boopie]

Very nice! Congratulations!

[ravenhome777]

Cool!