Tudor

c1950 Tudor

This is a good looking Tudor manual wind watch, but it may have had a hidden history. HOW DO WE DATE THIS WATCH? Tudor were founded in 1926 by the founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf, who wanted a cheaper line of watches to offer alongside the more expensive Rolex watches. The movement in this watch was first used in 1940, and the logo stated to change in 1948 to lose a shield around the rose – like this watch. The likelihood is that this watch was produced around 1950. CONDITION This Tudor watch has a case made by BWC, or British Watch Cases Ltd of London. They did work with Tudor and cased many of their watches, mainly in 9k gold, as it was a legal way to avoid punitive tax penalties on importing completed gold watches. But in our experience they are always stamped for both BWC and Tudor, and this is only stamped for BWC. Either this is a rare version we have not encountered before, or a genuine Tudor movement and dial has been fitted into the BWC case. This did (and does) happen when gold prices were high, or times were hard, and the gold cases were sold for smelting. The sword hands are likely to be correct, as they are radium filled and this was stopped by the mid fifties. The dial also have small lume plots that also show as radium when checked with a Geiger counter. The movement is a manual wind 15 jewel calibre stamped for Tudor, which was heavily based on the ETA1260, and it is winding and ticking away well. The expanding bracelet looks period correct, and is the Excalibur number 49 model. The bracelet has been cleaned in our ultrasonic bath and could be swapped for a leather strap if preferred. The watch is signed on the dial and movement. This watch will be supplied with our branded and reusable zipped travel case and cleaning cloth, and our Certificate of Authenticity. SIZE Width with crown 34.6 mm Width without crown 33.0 mm Between lugs 16 mm Lug to lug length 41.0 mm Case Thickness 9.4 mm Bracelet will fit a maximum wrist size of 210 mm. All sizes are approximate. The watch is photographed on a wrist of 190mm/7.5 inches.