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Rolex chronos- my personal history collection

Rolex chronographs – my personal history collection

The first Rolex chronographs all used the base Valjoux movement albeit different sizes.
The very early chronographs were beautiful watches with single button or two button chronos. The buttons were often oval or olive shaped. Some cases were square ( note ref 3529 ).
One very interesting and very rare chrono is known as the Zerograph (ref 3462), a single button chronograph with an Oyster crown and a case very similar to an early Oyster case.
This is present in my early ref 4062. Obviously these cases were not waterproof and the movements were found in many chronos of the time including Vacheron, Longines, and Jaeger, . Look at the workmanship of this early case. Beautiful lugs, coined edge case and a stunning dial.





The cases changed over the years to become a single piece case- mono bloco eg. ref 4500 . The models changed from 4500 to become 3525 and 3668 models. These were the precursor to the current Oyster chronos we are familiar with today, beginning with ref 6034 and finally to my 6238.



The bezel was still a regular bezel with no telemetre or tachymetre markings. Tthe next iteration was ref- 6239 – still non screw pushers but having a separate tachymetre bezel.
Finally a screw down pusher was added to the new reference 6263. Theoretically a waterproof chronograph.



The 6265 had a metal bezel but was similar to the ref 6263.

In 1991 Rolex changed their base movement from Valjoux to the now famous Zenith movement ref 4030 which it used until early 2000 when it changed to a fully in house movement.

The Zenith movements were the highlight of the Daytonas history. Stainless steel Daytonas were traded like currency all over the world. Demand outstripped supply and prices rocketed. Marketing 101 taking to the max!

Here is my Zenith with the very rare so called porcelain dial. There were multiple changes to the bezel and dials for these Zenith chronos.



I present my small history of Rolex chronos which represents part of the timeline.


Many thanks to Dowling and Hess- The Best of Time/An unauthorized history This message has been edited by DrStrong on 2011-02-04 02:47:41 This message has been edited by DrStrong on 2011-02-20 06:12:42