"What's in a name?" - Rolex group private label watches.

Hello everyone, I recently came across a wonderful find of a very special watch. It represents a cool time in Rolex history and I thought it would be fun to chat with you all about it. The watch you see below was likely purchased in the 50's from Canadian retailer Eaton's. In the mid-century department stores loomed large in the consumer consciousness. Department stores existed to fulfill consumers' every purchase need from the practical (clothing, furniture), to the bizarre (Sears sold DIY homebuilding kits up until the 1940's), and ultimately for us the luxurious.
Though these retailers provided North Americans with so many of their household goods often under their own brand names it would be unwieldily for a company to produce, ship, and them. So these stores often created relationships with existing manufacturers to buy, rebrand, and sell their existing goods under the department store's own name. Similar excitement exists today as shoppers flock to Costco, in order to purchase things like Kirkland Signature Golf Balls which are produced by Taylor Made. Such products are often called Private Label products.

Earlier in Rolex's history, there was a time when the brand did not enjoy such a feverish appreciation as it does today. Owing to many factors quality, advertising, and cultural significance naming just a few it would never make sense for Rolex in today's market to sell watches to a retailer to be rebranded or a retailer to rebrand Rolex watch to an internal private label. The situation for Rolex was different in the 50's when many other brands that have now been eclipsed by Rolex (including a few that have since disappeared completely) were seen as more prestigious or desirable. As foreign as the idea might seem to someone living in 2022 there was such a time when even some 50 years after its founding Rolex was not a household name, and certainly was not synonymous with fine watchmaking in the eyes of the public. In America Rolex only began to surge in popularity after the second world war possibly receiving such a boost only due to President Eisenhower being photographed wearing a Datejust for the April 1950 issue of Time Magazine. In Canada the Rolex brand was initially completely absent, watches retailed by Hans Wilsdorf were marketed under the brand name Oyster Watch Co. featuring some playful names.

In addition to doing the business themselves, Rolex had two contracts in Canada one with the famous Canadian Jeweller Birks and a second contract with Eaton's. Birks sold cased watches with Rolex movements and Birks on the dial, whereas Eaton's had the watches produced for their in-house "Solar" brand. Not all "Solar" brand watches had Rolex movements so far all of the watches that have Rolex movements to my knowledge are from the the "Aqua", "Aqua Prima", or "King of Wings" lines of watches.

The watch I have to show you all today is from the Solar Aqua line. It has an oyster-style screw-down crown featuring the words "Oyster Patented" and an automatic "rotor self-winding" system. The indices appear to be applied yellow gold. Radium is applied to the dauphin shaped hands and has remained quite well preserved while aging to a very attractive (subjectively) light orange. Small dots of radium in the same hue can be seen near the minute track at the 12, 2, and 3 markers leading me to believe that all the indices were once similarly marked. The watch is quite dense though it is likely gold-capped as opposed to solid gold. Scouring the internet I have not come across a watch in this exact configuration so I have had trouble dating it exactly. I suspect it has a Tudor Cal. 390 hence the "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" reference. This guy probably hasn't been serviced in 40 or more years and is ticking over no problem.

To those of you who have more information on this watch in particular or who want to discuss Rolex private label watches in general I would love to have a discussion in the comments. Of particular interest to me would be if anyone could help me date the watch a bit what I believe to be the serial number is visible on the back. If anyone has any idea what the exact movement is on the inside that would be awesome information. If anyone knows of a trusted watchmaker in Canada with experience dealing with watches of this vintage I would love a recommendation. The fella is clearly in need of a trip to the spa and I would have to have any of the vintage charm damaged by a lack of care.

I would like to open the watch but I don't have the proper tools. In the past, I have used the rubber on my climbing shoes but this watch has a sentimental attachment/family significance. I would feel really bad if I damaged the watch in any way by using too much force. Thanks for the tip on the crop. I'll take care of that next post.

The 7809 number on the case back is the reference number of the Tudor Oyster Prince watches used on the famous Greenland expedition. It is remarked that some of these watches had a similar dial configuration with the arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6, and 9 but the case appears different and I did not see any of those cased in gold.

I cant help ya but just wanted to say I thought it was a very interesting read! Thanks for the post.

It is a Tudor. Your crown seems to be a replacement. The dial indices are not solid gold , just polished brass. Nothing special. I had a few over the last 30 plus years.

Very cool that you have had so many! Are you in the Canadian market or have these watches migrated around the globe over the years? I would not be surprised that the crown had been changed. I am curious as to what you tipped you off though? Different shape? Different words? If I wanted to source something that was closer to the original what would I be looking for? Thanks for your advice and the benefit of your experience.

My guess is a FEF base caliber with Tudor added automatic winding gear. Caliber 390.

The tudor 390 is a 12.5 ligne FEF (Fleurier Ebauche Factory) 380/390 base movement and is known to be an Ok base movement but with a troublesome autowind assembly added by Tudor. For this reason, autowind parts are very hard to find ; so if you buy a movement needing parts, it can be an expensive project.

So from the information that you have gathered, it is likely the case that these watches would have been purchased by Eaton's from Rolex. Rolex would have provided Eaton's with a watch similar in quality to its own Tudor line which it could then sell under the Solar Aqua name?

You say this is likely using an ETA movement any idea what kind of movement and how hard it will be to find replacement parts? My first priority is to get this watch back into great mechanical shape so I can wear it as part of my regular rotation. (If you know a guy you trust to work on something like this I am happy to hear suggestions.

You seem pretty expert to me. No one seems to have done a TON of research into these watches. Most of the information I have found comes from guys like you who have just happened to own them over the years.

The watch seems to be in suspiciously healthy condition. It's sat for a minimum of 15 years and I don't know when my grandfather had it serviced before that. I picked it up and it started ticking so I gave it a bit of wind and wore it. Popped it down on my nightstand and it was still ticking 24 hours later.

The 1/4 Century Club watches were presented to employees from the 1920s to at least 1971, and over the years included pocket watches and “Prince” style cases. There was also a woman’s version. Eaton’s bought in batches from Rolex and had the engraving done locally.

I have seen a couple of the mens wristwatches with “Rolex” on the dial instead of Eatons” - those are repainted, so beware.

I’m keen on Canadian market Rolexes and Tudors. See my avatar. 👍

OP, there’s a short write up on these in a recent issue of the newsletter of the NAWCC Ottawa Chapter 111. It’s online on the chapter site.

I live in Calgary currently. There are no watchmakers in the city as far as I know. Happy to go anywhere in Canada if there is someone who would be good. If not I would be willing to ship globally, just a pain with duties.

[QUOTE="nicks, post: 1988676, member: 42668"
I’m keen on Canadian market Rolexes and Tudors. See my avatar. 👍

OP, there’s a short write up on these in a recent issue of the newsletter of the NAWCC Ottawa Chapter 111. It’s online on the chapter site.[/QUOTE]
Oh that is awesome I will for sure check it out. Thanks for the info!

I don't have an interest in expanding my collection any further, this one has some sentimental value while also being a cool/interesting watch. That being said I think there is a lot to dig into here. My wife has a lot of jewellery from Birks so one of the manual winding watches with the Rolex movement could be sweet if the condition was right. There is also another private label watch from an American retailer called Zell that goes by the name "Turtle Timer" and I think that is sweet too.