The Infamous Oyster Case, The 1950's Tudor Oyster Automatic reference 7809
The Oyster case is one of the most important inventions in recent history for watches. Interestingly, the case can often be associated with tool watches, which makes complete sense. It was created to make watches waterproof and gave them the ability to dive to the depths of the oceans. Vintage Rolex Submariners always come to mind. But the oyster case was also used in watches that have a classic styling to them. The yellow gold, 34mm Tudor Oyster covered today is a great example.
Tudor, known as the sister brand of Rolex, has a very interesting and successful history tied very closely to Rolex. The beginnings of the brand’s relationship with Rolex came in 1936 when Hans Wilsdorf took over Tudor, the name, and their watch production. Rolex wanted to establish a lower-priced alternative that maintained the high-quality watches they produced. Rolex used the rose of the British royal house of Tudor as the logo found on the dials of these watches.
In 1946, very soon after World War II, Wilsdorf founded Montres Tudor S.A., giving Tudor its own independent brand. Fast forward 6 years and Tudor took a feather from Rolex’s book and launched the Tudor Oyster Prince line of watches. From the name, it is clear what pieces of technical innovation they used from Rolex; the Oyster case and self-winding mechanism with perpetual rotor. These innovations lead to the creation of the Oyster Prince Submariner which was Tudor’s first dive watch.
The Oyster case that is so important to the Tudor Oyster goes back to 1926. This was the year that Rolex introduced the iconic case. It helped protect watches from dust, moisture, and pressure and allowed the watches to be used by divers and swimmers alike. This was really the beginning of the iconic tool watches we have today.
The Tudor Oyster today is a reference 7809. Tudor Oysters first appeared in 1946 and used manual wind movements. From their, Tudor released many different variations of of the Tudor Oyster, making it an extremely fun series of watches to collect. In 1952, they released the Oyster Prince, which described the automatic movement they developed to be used in the Oyster Prince line of watches. A very important use of the reference 7809 was during the British North Greenland Expedition. Revolution Watch covered the use of these watches:
“The British North Greenland Expedition (BNGE) 1952-54, was led by Commander James Simpson and commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill to survey and research the ice cap. A total of 30 men took part in the expedition over the two years and were made up from representatives of the armed forces and various scientific fields including the areas of geology, meteorology, glaciology and physiology. As well as research work, it was also an opportunity to train the military servicemen in Arctic conditions. The expedition was almost entirely carried out by the British, but the Danish Army did provide a captain, an army surveyor, who was sadly the one fatality of the mission in 1953. Denmark claimed Greenland as their sovereign land in 1380, but officially the Kingdom of Denmark adopted the island in 1953 – right in the middle of the BNGE. There would have been a lot of political activity in Denmark at this time and so I expect that it was a diplomatic necessity to have a representative of Denmark on the BNGE.
The work was carried out from two base camps – the first at the glacial lake Britannia So (a name given to the lake for the expedition) and a second camp North Ice, which was 230 miles west of Britannia So. Travel around the island was via either dog-pulled sledges or Studebaker M29s, military tracked vehicles known as “Weasels” that were designed for use on snow. The mission began somewhat dramatically when one of the RAF supply planes, making equipment parachute drops, got caught in a blizzard white-out and had to make an emergency landing. Everybody survived, but they had to be rescued by the United States Air Force in a mission lasting two days.
According to records, the expedition was supplied with 26 Tudor Oyster watches, ref. 7809. These watches were monoblock pieces, with the one-piece case featuring the screw-down crown and caseback. The watches were delivered on brown leather straps and were visually not dissimilar to the Rolex ref. 6098 pre-Explorer “Ovettone” watches that were provided for the 1952 Everest expedition. The “Everest” Rolex watches were also of monoblock construction but in a 36mm case ref. 6098. They had dials with an applied Rolex coronet and simple applied baton hour markers, with a double baton at 12 o’clock.
The Tudor 7809s that were supplied had two different dial configurations in slightly smaller watches measuring 34mm. One dial version was very similar to the Rolex dial with simple baton hour markers and a double baton at 12 o’clock. The second dial variation resembled the Explorer watches that would come later from Rolex and the Ranger series from Tudor, with applied Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9. We remain unsure how many of each dial was provided.”
The reference 7809 today is a 34mm, yellow gold Tudor Oyster. The watch was manufactured in the 1950’s. The watch has a extremely beautiful white dial that has faded over time to a cream hue. The watch has recessed, gold hour markers, sword hour and minute hands, and an arrow-style center seconds hand. The case is in overall good condition, with some light polishing visible.
The watch runs on the caliber 390 automatic movement. This caliber first came about in 1950 and were only manufactured until 1955. The caliber 390 is a 12.5 ligne movement that is 6.25mm thick. It self-winds in both directions, unlike other watch movements of this era that only wound in one direction. It had the highest technology of the era, including a Glucydur balance and kif shock protection system. The automatic rotor also is in the shape of a butterfly, which is why many people nickname caliber the ‘butterfly automatic’. Interestingly, the caliber 390 was manufactured in the same manufacturing plants as the Rolex caliber 1030, their flagship automatic movement at the time. They were also almost identical in design, showing the prowess of the movements in relation to Rolex.
One thing that is so attractive about this piece is the fact that the watch is in a yellow gold case and has some-what of a dressy feel to it. It reminds the wearer of the Rolex reference 6062. It harkens back to the days of Rolex and Tudor where they had an interesting intersection between high complication and sports watch technologies.
Tudor is an incredible brand. Not only for the technologies in their watches, but also the aesthetics of the watches on the wrist. They remind the wearer that there is beauty in technically-advanced watches too.
Enjoy!
