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Old 23 February 2018, 04:35 AM   #1
Rushwarp
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Rolex green plastic wallets

Hello collective wisdom!

I have scoured the net and this forum to no avail trying to find out more about the dating of vartious Rolex plastic certificate holders up to about 1980.

- Some have no number; some are marked '100'; the majority are marked '100.00.41'

- Earlier examples seem to be one even color followed by those with more 'green marbelized' look;

But I cannot find out any rough dating divisions between these types.
Does anyone have some clues about this?
Thanks in advance!
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Old 23 February 2018, 07:07 AM   #2
Paul
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It's a lucky dip IMHO ...

A two minute history lesson, old news to most folk I'm guessing ....

At certain times over the decades, Rolex exported their product all over the world in what might the automotive industry used to call 'CKD' ( completely-knocked-down) form. That means watch heads only were shipped out, perhaps simply with chronometer testing papers (if appropriate). The AD added a box, tags, wallet, polishing cloth etc. from their stash, filled in the blanks on what we now call 'papers' and handed the watch to the proud new owner. The CKD export / import system was a clever way a manufacturer could move his product around the world, tagged for customs as 'spare parts', avoiding the taxes levied on complete ready-to-use items. Most countries also had rulings stating that if an item had a minimum percentage of locally-made components, it could be deemed to be a domestically produced item squeezing out the tax man even more. That is why the world's greatest Swiss watch can often be seen sporting a bracelet made in USA ... or Mexico ... or England (etc) , sitting in a box that was similarly made a long way from Geneva.

Wallets .... probably just one of the many items the AD simply plucked of the store-room shelf when he was rounding up the bits to complete a sale. A 'close enough is good enough' attitude probably applied so the buyer got whatever the AD had on hand, rather than what might have been deemed strictly correct for a 5513, or a 1675 or whatever.

I have a soft spot for epherema and a bit of a stash. If it helps, I have had a few early 60s' Rolex watches come to me over the years accompanied by epherema that I like to think is original ... but who really knows That has included 1.00.0041 stamped green wallets that have the patina hallmarks suggesting they are old 1960s' items ... flimsy green plastic outer, yellowed, somewhat brittle inner clear plastic ... smells like my Grandads farmhouse when I was a kid By contrast, the 1.00.0044 wallets have a more substantial construction suggesting tome a newer era of manufacture.

For folk who seek out box and papers Rolex watches ... or simply enjoy epherema ... be aware that there's plenty of sellers who cobble together sets when they are putting a watch to market (often with genuine Rolex epherema, just not original to the watch) and there are plenty of fakee epherema items out there too. When you handle enough olde Rolex stuff you get an instinct for what's good and what's bad - that said, twenty years into this hobby I personally have a couple of items in my own epherema stash that just don't feel right to me, that I'll need to investigate thoroughly one day.

Long answer to a short question cos I'm that kinda guy. For me though, a 1.00.0041 wallet is probably AOK for any Rolex deemed to fall under that loose classification we call 'vintage'. Might have been 1.00.0044 wallets incirculation by 1980 but like I say, close enough is good enough

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Old 23 February 2018, 08:47 AM   #3
jb335
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Thank you for writing all of that, Paul. I did not know about CKD and those tricks to avoid taxes.
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Old 23 February 2018, 10:08 AM   #4
GregorTT
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Interesting read for us newbies _ thanks for sharing. I have to admit though, that I had to look up "epherema"....
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Old 23 February 2018, 08:49 PM   #5
Rushwarp
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Thanks Paul for your information !
Very helpful indeed.
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