This Rolex Oyster Royal 6444 was purchased on the 12th of April 1960 this is the same year Rolex sent the Deep Sea Special model deep into the Mariana Trench, strapped to the outside of the Trieste bathyscaphe emerging unscathed. It is not every day we can buy a watch with such amazing provenance and from the original family. As we went through the paperwork more of the history emerged.
The Rolex Oyster Royal Precision was purchased in Singapore from G.C.De Silva & Bros Jewellers at 3 Raffles Place.
The Rolex Guarantee card and the original purchase receipt of the Rolex has been kept in its plastic sleeve since 1960. Can you imagine being able to buy a new Rolex now for 155.00 Singapore dollars!
As we checked the envelope the paper work came in we noticed the address of a Royal Navy Shop and a title of C.P.O. The first owner was a C.P.O (Chief Petty Officer) on the H.M.S. St Brides Bay which was a Bay Class Anti Aircraft Frigate of the British Royal Navy. We then looked up the logs for the H.M.S. St Brides Bay which showed the docking in Singapore and the date in which they left for Hong Kong fitting perfectly in with the purchase date.
Then we found the original import papers when C.P.O. Poole arrived back in England. This must be rare because many times such purchases were hidden on the way back in to the country to save money when importing them. The Duty Import Receipt was kept immaculate tucked inside the original guarantee card showing the Rolex Oyster Royal was legally imported and Duty Tax was paid, a total of £7 15 shillings and 6 pence. This is when we noticed the note about the watch already being engraved with the owners name. Even after 69 years this engraving is still present on the back of the watch and must have been done by the original Jewellers when purchased.
The watch is in great condition and has been serviced here in our on-site service centre were we over see restorations of Rolex without altering its originality to see more examples of this please check our other blog posts.