I would agree that the presentation is quite generic. I have collected pocket and wrist watches for close to 40 years, including rare and expensive solid gold American and European, including Patek, Audemars, first run Cartier, repeaters and other complicated watches. I have also collected antique firearms, to include colt's, winchester's and the like, and solid gold presentation police badges. Over the years, I have come across some excellent "fake" engraving and presentations, and have found that the more generic, the better, such that verifying the presentation becomes that much more difficult, with less specific information on who might have been the recipient or the presenter.
While certainly not an expert in Rolex watches, I would be extremely careful and cautious with such a presentation watch as we are discussing, unless I had extremely solid evidence that such a "mass" presentation had in fact occurred, irrespective of whether or not everything else seems proper.
A friend and I, in the late 1970's, early 1980's actually put together a number of extremely rare Hamilton pocket watches, from materials purchased from the Hamilton Watch factory, when they went bankrupt. We used not only actual authentic Hamilton materials, but Hamilton production equipment and tools, to do so. The case, movement, dial and hands were time period specific, and to all outside appearances, the watches were "newly" uncovered rare Hamiltons. We made them for ourselves and a few friends, for fun, with no intent to defraud or mislead......it was a fun project, and at that time, that particular watch was not considered to be either rare, or scarce. Years later, I would periodically come across one with an incredible "story" about where it came from, who it was made for, and the like.....all complete nonsense.
I saw the same with an extremely rare badge, that, some 30 years ago, surfaced, without any hallmark or engraving, and then miraculously, some 25 years later, resurfaced hallmarked and engraved with a nice presentation, and SOLD for a 5 figure price. Luckily, in that case, others had seen it before, and so the buyer was informed and was able to undo the sale.
Before stuff becomes highly collected, we simply don't see this phenomena, but when crazy money starts changing hands, we see sometimes very compelling fakes begin to emerge.
Again, not being an expert in Rolex watches by any stretch of the imagination, but having been involved in collecting similarly high priced items for many years,
I would, right or wrong, steer clear of a piece such as this one, unless I could unequivocally valid it's provenance.
It's nice to see the collective knowledge and opinions come together here, in an effort to valid such an interesting find.....
