quattro
[Moderator]
19800
Choose your “Eaton ¼ Century Club” Rolex
The T. Eaton's Company, founded in 1869, was one of Canada's largest and most influential department store empires.
As part of its corporate culture, Eaton's created the Quarter Century Club to reward employees with 25 years of continuous service. Membership was considered a mark of loyalty, stability, and prestige within the company.
From the beginning of the 1930s to the mid-1950s, Eaton's collaborated with Rolex to create unique watches for club members, as a token of appreciation and a reward for their dedication.
The distinctive feature of these watches was that, on the dial, signed only by Eaton's, the numerals and hour markers were replaced by the twelve characters "1/4 C E N T U R Y C L U B."
Here are the different variants I have been able to identify.
A/ PRINCE
1/ RAM'S HORN
credit: @kittyvolante
2/ BRANCARD
The name of the employee was engraved at the back of the watch.
credit: Scorpione
I added this example because the two tone dial is more visible.
credit: Bachmann & Scher
B/ OYSTER 6422
credit: Bachmann & Scher
C/ STEEL BUBBLEBACK
The steel bubbleback are extremely rare. The first one below was posted by maxbliss888 here on WPS back in 2017.
credit: maxbliss888, Kinghouse & Carousell
D/ LADY'S COCKTAIL WATCH
credit: Bonhams & Watches to buy
E/ POCKET WATCH
credit: Christie’s
BONUSES
Membership certificate
Record of the Eaton Quarter Century Club
Record of the Eaton Quarter Century Club
Catalogue cover
credit: Vintage Toronto (membership card), Richard Bradley (record) & Wikimedia (catalogue)
A very nice page of history, don't you think so?
Do you have a favorite model/dial?
The Ram's horn is the one which sings to me the most, personally.
Thanks for reading.
Best, Emmanuel
Choose your “Eaton ¼ Century Club” Rolex
The T. Eaton 's Company , founded in 1869 , was one of Canada 's largest and most influential department store empires . As part of its corporate culture , Eaton's created the Quarter Century Club to reward employees with 25 years of continuous service . ...
Nice. I would guess there are few,
if any companies that give a presentation watch to mark any occasion, or achievement any more, used to be quite common.
Very cool.
Growing up the 2 biggest stores (department stores) in Canada were Eatons and the Hudson’s Bay Company (later changed to The Bay when they were trying to act cool). The Hudson’s Bay Company was started in 1670 and the oldest corporation in North America. ...
That's longevity!
The corporate culture and things such as the 1/4 century club might have played a role. Best, Emmanuel
I love your Ram's horn!
I had a look on eBay and it seems that many companies made Quarter Century Clubs: Oldsmobile, General Electric, IBM, etc.! Best, Emmanuel