a Bob Ridley restoration of a 1908 W&D

[Alcan]

A couple of years ago I acquired an old Wilsdorf & Davis pendant watch in sad shape. But, I had a feeling about it and about the history of Rolex S.A.:

1905, Wilsdorf & Davis is established in London
1908, Hans Wilsdorf registers the Tradename Rolex
1915, the Rolex Watch Company Ltd. is established
1920, the company is renamed Montres Rolex S.A
and the rest, as they say, is history.

I had the case hallmarks checked out, and it turned out that it is indeed from 1908, the same year that Wilsdorf trademarked Rolex. Had it been from 1907 or 1909 I probably wouldn't have gone ahead with this project.

I sent the watch to Bob Ridley last Fall for his opinion on the feasibility of restoring it, here's what he had to work with.

The movement didn't run, the hands and bow were missing, the crown was badly worn down, the caseback was sprung and wouldn't stay closed, and there were deep tool marks on the inner dust cover.















Bob and I spent some time discussing the restoration. The case work was substantial but do-able. Here are the results with the case and inner dust cover repaired, hinge repaired, new "onion" crown, and new bow installed.

















On to the movement, it was in rough condition. At one point we discussed locating a similar movement in better shape to work with, but Bob eventually discarded that idea in favour of redoing the original movement and retaining the authenticity of the watch.

He suggested the idea of drilling out a couple of worn bushings and replacing them with jewels to improve the reliability and timekeeping, and that's what we finally settled on.














Next, a correct replacement crystal was fitted.






Finally, a set of period correct hands. I gave him free rein on this and I think he did a wonderful job choosing the blued steel hands. This project has now come to an end, and he'll be shipping it back to me next week. Working with him on this restoration was a pleasure, Bob's a real gentleman as well as being a highly skilled craftsman.

Nancy has already claimed it, so I guess my final expenditure on this one will be a sturdy silver chain so she can wear it as we think it was originally intended, as a Ladies pendant watch.






I've spent the last year or so scouring the internet for other examples of these early works, and I now think that this might be the only surviving, running 1908 Wilsdorf & Davis left.


P.S. Bob's also a heck of a photographer. Most of the images here are his.