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Tudor Oyster Prince Rotor self winding
| Material |
Stainless steel |
| Winding |
Automatic, Full rotor |
| Functions |
Central seconds |
| Reference number/model |
7909 |
| Dial |
Off-white textured dial with
applied markers and numerals for 12, 3, 6 and 9. Markers and numerals appear to be white
gold or white gold filled. Dauphine hands with lumniescent inserts. Markers have
luminescent inserts too. |
| Movement |
Rolex based movement |
| Case |
Stainless steel oyster case,
screw on crown, screw back. Marked Montres Tudor S.A. on inside of case back. Case number
149073 |
(click on the images for a
close-up)
This watch was purchased in 1996 from a friend who wanted to part
with it. The most striking feature of this watch is the dial, which has a rather
"Explorer" like appearance. The dial is a bit dirty, but cleaning might ruin the
vintage looks of it.
The watch is an excellent time keeper which runs
like the wind, so to speak. The rotor seems to be touching the inside of the case due to a
loose baring, but it doesn’t affect the winding capabilities. This problem seems to
be quite common on this movement.
Detail of the dial |
Some questions remain about the movement. Visual comparison
leads to the conclusion that it is a Rolex 1030 caliber. It was suggested to me that this
movement was used in Tudors for a short time, until they switched to ETA calibers for
their automatics.
The reason for this was suggested to be the costs, but I am
still looking for confirmation on this.
This watch was my first "Rolex", although it is not
really a Rolex. I had a number of authentic Rolexes which all have changed owner, but this
one is still with me, and probably will stay with me. This is one of my favorites.
Although, swapping for an Explorer 6610 might be optional ;)
Ernst Hampel wrote the following about the Tudor movement 390 in his book "Automatic
wristwatches from Switzerland", page 301:
Caliber Notes
The Rolex firm sold reasonably priced watches un-
der the brand name of "Tudor", using dependable raw
movements of Ebauches S.A., at first made by AS and later
by Eta, in its Oyster cases.
An exception was the "Rotor-Prince" Caliber 390
developed by Rolex around 1950 especially for the Tudor
brand. It was a rugged and rather high automatic move-
ment with a central rotor winding in both directions. Its com-
ponents were markedly similar to those of the contempo-
rary Rolex Caliber 1030, including the shape of the rotor,
the Maltese spring to stop the rotor, and the sprung discs of
the twin click wheels (those of the older Perpetual move-
ments).
Caliber 390
D = 28.5 mm (12.5 lignes), H = 6.25 mm, 17 jewels
AUTOMATIC MODULE screwed to the basic movement,
central rotor with heavy metal ring and sliding mount, wiJ1d-
ing in both directions via twin click wheels with sprung
discs, two reduction wheels on the locking wheel.
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See the bookreviews for details
about this book
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