1963 Tudor Oyster-Prince 34mm Automatic Silver Dial 7965
Ref: 7965
Specification
Lugs : 19mm
Condition : Pre-Owned
Box & Papers : None
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Warranty : 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty
Points of Mention
This watch is sold as “Watch Only” and, therefore, comes without its Tudor box or paperwork. It is paired with a 19mm Rolex strap and Rolex pin buckle. The watch is from Circa 1963 and is sold in worn vintage condition, but overall, it is in fair condition, as you can see. The watch has an original Tritium dial; the minute hand has the original Tritium lume, while the hour hand has been relumed at some point in its past. The watch comes with our 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty.
For more photos see here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D-8xlrSBfjGR4-TEQP7puXXrwvgtOpIQ?usp=drive_link
4K YouTube video, skip to 15:46 - https://youtu.be/einXsHCMNDc
The Watch
Here is a classic 1963 Tudor Oyster-Prince 34mm Automatic Silver Dial 7965. In 1947, Tudor introduced the Oyster, their first waterproof watch, building on the success of the Rolex Oyster of the same period. In 1952, 26 Tudor Oyster Prince watches were included in the British scientific expedition to Greenland organised by the Royal Navy and sponsored by the Queen. This showed the world how robust Tudor Oyster watches were. The 34mm round stainless steel Rolex Oyster case with tapered drilled lugs. The subtle curve of the flanks leads to a lug-to-lug length of 40mm and a thickness of 11.5mm, ensuring a comfortable fit on your wrist. On the right side, a signed screwed-down Rolex crown. The slim polished bezel holds a flat crystal above a stunning silver engine-turned dial. An outer minute track with facet dart hour markers and slim baton indexes mark the hours. Elegant lance hands are complemented by a fine tapered sweeping centre seconds hand. At 12 o’clock, we have the Tudor Rose motif, “Oyster Prince”, and at 6 o’clock “, Rotor and a smiley Self-Winding”, indicating an ETA movement inside. On the reverse, a screw-down case back, inside an automatic ETA Cal. 2484, 25 jewels beating at a leisurely 18,000 beats per hour. It comes paired with a 19mm Rolex strap and Rolex pin buckle.
Personal Note
There will forever be something alluring and undeniably attractive about a vintage Tudor, especially an elegantly simple reference like this 7965 coming in a perfect 34mm Case and featuring a classic silver dial making it incredibly versatile. This example dates to 1963 and is powered by the automatic ETA 2484 which is a true workhorse movement and if looked after will easily give another 60+ years of enjoyment. I would not hesitate to add this beautiful watch to your collection today!
The Brand
The Tudor trademark was first registered in 1926 by the Swiss watchmaking company “Veuve de Philippe Hüther” on behalf of Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex watches; Wilsdorf took it over himself in 1936. Just after the Second World War, Hans Wilsdorf, Founder of Rolex, knew that the time had come to expand and give the Tudor brand a proper identity of its own. The Tudor Rose started to appear on their dials from this time; thus, on 6 March 1946, he created the “Montres TUDOR S.A.” company, specialising in models for both men and women. Rolex guarantees technical, aesthetic, and functional characteristics, as well as distribution and after-sales service. In 1948, we saw the first Tudor-specific advertising; a few years later, they introduced the TUDOR Oyster Prince in 1952, Hans Wilsdorf allowed Tudor to use their waterproof Oyster case and the original self-winding Perpetual ’rotor’ movement. This was an exclusive arrangement that benefitted both brands; development soon commenced with the introduction of the TUDOR Oyster Prince Submariner, reference 7922, in 1954; this watch was quickly adopted by the French Navy in 1956. Building on its reputation of robustness in 1961, the Rose was replaced by the shield. Later in 1969, we saw the design changes in Ref. 7016 where for the first time square indexes and angular hands nicknamed “Snowflake” allowed for a more significant amount of lume to be applied; this was appreciated by the divers of the French Navy. Today, these innovations can be seen in the Black Bay and Pelagos collections. In 1971, Tudor introduced the Oysterdate chronographs nicknamed “Monte-Carlo” due to their resembling a roulette wheel. Celebrating their 50th anniversary in 1996. In that same year, Tudor decided to shed Rolex-signed components such as the cases, crowns and bracelets in favour of Tudor-branded ones. Today Tudor uses their in-house movements developed initially in 2015 in collaboration with Breitling.