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Vintage Tudor Rolex Sky-Rocket WW2 Men’s Military Watch - Image 1
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Vintage Tudor Rolex Sky-Rocket WW2 Men’s Military Watch

DIRECT PRICE SAVE 10%
EBAY PRICE$1999.00
DIRECT -10%$1799.10

DESCRIPTION

For sale is an extraordinary and historically significant timepiece: a genuine Tudor by Rolex “Sky Rocket” from the World War II era. This is not a standard civilian Tudor — it is a Rolex-manufactured Tudor designed during WWII, and it stands as an extremely rare outlier in the Tudor lineup. During the war years, most military-themed and military-design watches were produced under the Rolex and Oyster Watch Company names. Tudor pieces from this period rarely carried overt military styling, making the Sky Rocket an exceptional anomaly. Even more fascinating, “Sky Rocket” is a model name also associated with Rolex and Oyster Watch Company watches of the same era, further reinforcing its direct Rolex lineage. This is a Rolex-made Tudor with true wartime DNA. Watches like this almost never surface. It is entirely possible that this example is one of the last surviving pieces — and it may never be seen for sale again. The watch retains its all-original design and is powered by a high-end original Caliber 59 movement with 17 jewels, a more desirable and harder-to-find variant than the more common 15-jewel Caliber 59 found in most wartime watches. It is currently running smoothly and keeping accurate time. On many Canadian-market wartime models, Tudor, Oyster Watch Company, and Rolex outsourced some case back production to Pioneer and ID. This is why this example is stamped “ID” on the case back. It is the original case back to the watch and correct for this period and market. Key Features: • Brand: Tudor by Rolex • Model: Sky Rocket • Movement: Original High-End 17J Caliber 59 • Case Size: 29mm • Era: World War II (1940s) • Condition: Running smoothly and keeping accurate time • Dial: Original dial with luminous hands and Arabic numerals, delivering a classic wartime military aesthetic • Strap: Brand new high-end burgundy leather strap Condition Notes: This watch displays honest signs of age consistent with a genuine WWII-era timepiece. The dial, hands, case, and movement are original, preserving its authenticity and strong collector appeal. The high-grade 17-jewel Caliber 59 movement is functioning properly and keeping accurate time, a testament to Rolex’s wartime engineering standards. Please Note: This watch is sold as-is in vintage condition. Due to its age, no guarantees are made regarding long-term accuracy. Ships carefully. Feel free to message me with any questions.
BRAND:
Rolex
UNIT CONDITION:
Pre-owned - Good
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► ARCHIVE FILE: ROLEX — BRAND HISTORY

Rolex began in London in 1905, when Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis founded Wilsdorf & Davis to case Swiss movements for the British market. Wilsdorf registered the Rolex name in 1908, choosing it because it was short, easy to pronounce in any language, and fit neatly on a dial. He then set about proving that wristwatches, still dismissed as jewelry, could be precision instruments: a Rolex earned the first chronometer certificate granted to a wristwatch in 1910, a Kew Class A certificate followed in 1914, and the firm moved to Geneva in 1919.

Two inventions made the modern sports watch possible. The Oyster case of 1926 sealed the movement behind a screw-down bezel, case back, and crown; Wilsdorf proved it in 1927 by having swimmer Mercedes Gleitze wear one for more than ten hours in the English Channel, then announced the result in a front-page newspaper advertisement. In 1931 came the Perpetual rotor, a self-winding weight swinging through a full 360 degrees that kept the watch wound and the crown safely screwed down. Those two ideas remain the backbone of the catalog a century later.

The postwar decades produced the references that define the tool watch: the Datejust in 1945, the Explorer and the Submariner in 1953, the GMT-Master in 1955 for Pan Am crews, the Day-Date in 1956, and the Cosmograph Daytona in 1963. None of these were luxury objects at launch; they were equipment for divers, pilots, and engineers, which is precisely why the early examples matter. Rolex changed details constantly, so dial printing, bezel inserts, and crown guards let specialists date a watch almost to the year.

Vintage Rolex is the most scrutinized corner of the watch market, and originality is everything: an untouched dial outweighs a polished case, and correct period parts outweigh cosmetic perfection. Gilt-dial sports models and early GMTs sit at the top, but honest Oyster Perpetuals, Air-Kings, and Datejusts from the 1950s through the 1970s remain attainable ways into the brand. Serial numbers date production, service history adds real value, and the deep base of parts and knowledge around these watches means a good example can be maintained indefinitely.

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