Rolex logo on early speed kings

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devnull

·Nov 7, 2015

I'm looking at the dials of early Speed Kings and I'm surprised at the "variety" of the rolex logo. By that i mean that most of the printed black logos seem to have been done with a sharpie by hand. At first I'm thinking 'this has to be a fake dial' but a huge number of them from the 40's and early 50's seem this way. What's the deal with that? Here's a bunch from recent ebay listings:

 

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adam78

·Nov 7, 2015

First off, these are very small watches -- 30mm -- so the coronet will be hard to see so detailed with the naked eye. And a sharpie surely is too thick to do other than blotch a dial. Dial printing was not so precise as today, with the use of computers for everything, and digital imaging. I find those coronets charming, actually.

 

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devnull

·Nov 8, 2015

I too find them charming, and to be honest I'm not afraid to wear a small watch. What I want to know is whether they are original. Look for instance at the last photo, the thing doesn't even look printed but drawn by hand with one side not even on the edge of the circle. Is this right?

 

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kyle L

·Nov 8, 2015·Grasshopper

Could be the crystal distorting the chapter ring. The last one doesn't look the same quality as the other pieces thougg. It could be an older redial.

 

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adam78

·Nov 8, 2015

They all look like original dials to me. Or maybe Kyle's right about the last one.

Here are a few more of mine.

 

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vinn2

·Nov 8, 2015

very interesting, what are the movments like?

 

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devnull

·Nov 10, 2015

Check out the logo on the last one I posted:

Is that still considered kosher?

 

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vinn2

·Nov 10, 2015

if they have radium painted dials; they begin to look bad with age and "the radium dial painters" might have been a bit shaky.

 

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adam78

·Nov 10, 2015

devnull

Check out the logo on the last one I posted:

Is that still considered kosher?

That one probably is an older redial, esp. if there is no "SWISS MADE" below 6:00.