Tribute to a special watch I once saw

[JoJo35]

Beautiful watch, JoJo. The dial and the hands are a flawless match- excellent.

That Brevet crown is nice, I've never seen that on a 5508.

Thanks for the compliment on the watch alligoat. I found a link that shows a gen 6542 from the same year of production which has a similar "brevet" crown (1958). IMO it isn't implausible for a "first year" 5508 to still have this crown, so I took the artistic liberty to include it on this watch.

For those who may not know, the "+" brevet crown (signifying the Swiss patent) preceded the more common "underline" twinlock crown.

http://www.luxurywatchexchange.com/detail.asp?id=6823

[lanikai]

Ziggy's work takes the air out of everything that surrounds it... awesome Jojo. !! simply awesome ~

[alligoat]

That Brevet crown certainly adds something to your watch- some of that 'Rolex mystique'.

If you could source an early butterfly rotor for the 1530, it would certainly be the cats meow.

Great job!

[JoJo35]

I missed out on a butterfly rotor 1530 about a year ago right around the time I started thinking about this watch (damn)

[alligoat]

I don't know enough about those early bezels to comment, maybe freddy knows more since that's his area of study these days. Skeet and Urul mention the early bezel was also plastic, covered with a metal-like substance. As Tomvox states, the original bezel is in poor condition, with an Italian insert.

I do have my doubts about the dial though. A 1958 dial would be marked 'Swiss' at the bottom, I believe, since tritium didn't come into use until around 1963 or so. Nevertheless, I'd figure this dial as an early 60's replacement, when gilt was still prevalent.

[Pugwash]

You win at the internet.

[JoJo35]

You win at the internet.

???

[Slartibartfast]

That is a masterpiece. I love the coin edge bezel. Dial and hands, as said before, are beautiful. I am green with envy. One day....one day I may be as fortunate as you!