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Tudor Stainless Steel Manual Wind Dress Wristwat, 1940s — view 1 of 3
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Wristwatches · Wristwatch

Tudor Stainless Steel Manual Wind Dress Wristwat, 1940s

DocumentedDocumented from an auction catalogue; attribution as stated by the auction house.
Maker / attribution
TUDOR (maker)
Date
1940s
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Wristwatch
Materials / technique
silver, stainless steel
Lot
Item 114862737
Credit line
Auction lot record: lot 54252, Watches & Fine Timepieces #5526, Heritage Auctions (2021), via LiveAuctioneers
Catalogue title (original)
Tudor Stainless Steel Manual Wind Dress Wristwat (English)

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Record summary

Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 114862737), this is a wristwatch by TUDOR, dated 1940s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver, stainless steel. The record is illustrated with 3 photographs.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

Lot description — Heritage Auctions

Tudor Stainless Steel Manual Wind Dress Wristwatch Ref: 763 circa Late 1940's Case: 35mm, stainless steel, three piece, snap case, #616175 Dial: silver with raised silver numbers and markers, syringe hands Movement: powered by a Tudor/Rolex 15 jewel, caliber 59 movement Band: generic black leather strap with a generic stainless steel buckle Signed: Dial and movement signed Tudor. Case signed by Rolex HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Historical context

Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)

The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.

The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.

Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution

Atlas type guide

Wristwatches

Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.

After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.

What to look for

  • The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
  • The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
  • Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
  • Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.

Dating clues

  • Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
  • Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
  • Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

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