Watchlords

Afternoon delight, Rolex style.



The Rolex Sky-Rocket was marketed to Canadian servicemen, primarily pilots, during WW2.

They were cased in American made cases and were motivated by the Cal. 59 movement.

I've been after a nice example for years as I particularly like the name.

I took a chance on this one out of Canada
and was rewarded with a PERFECT gilt dial. I speculate that the watch has been dry stored and stored face down, this allowed the radium to melt into the acrylic crystal instead of the dial.

I'll need to source a crystal, but damn, it will be a looker!









Thanks for playing along at home!

Yet another nice watch for the smellody Rolex museum.
I applaud this rare procurement !

codguy wrote: ↑

May 23rd 2025, 3:14pm

Yet another nice watch for the smellody Rolex museum.
I applaud this rare procurement !

Thanks Mr. Guy. I know, you know that the struggles are real.

Minty! Congrats!

Congrats, a Cape Cod will buff it right out.

Mark1 wrote: ↑

May 23rd 2025, 9:43pm

Congrats, a Cape Cod will buff it right out.

It is radium burn, on the inside of the crystal.

Wowsers!

Think I have seen the hands for this watch once and that and a crystal (or just the crystal) and it will be stunning! Well done!!!

Never heard of these before - interesting they did a SE for Canadian pilots - Hell, I never even knew Canada had an Air Force.

Nice catch.

I think you might need a new handset. And bury the old handset in 50 cm of concrete.

Found an original ad in one of my books. Definitely marketed towards servicemen.

conjurer wrote: ↑

June 2nd 2025, 11:20pm

I think you might need a new handset. And bury the old handset in 50 cm of concrete.

NOS 11mm blued syringe hands set inbound from Lymington, UK!

I reckon that I should add that the center hole is 1.4 x .70mm for the Caliber 59.

Big boner time, indeed. Uhm. I am a bit concerned about the health of the person opening and working on the watch. Please be careful, You don't want to get any dust particles into anyone's lungs. Those bits of Rodico needs to be thrown over the fence at Hanford, that ought to be a nice daytrip with the Rolls.

gerdson wrote: ↑

June 5th 2025, 9:59pm

Big boner time, indeed. Uhm. I am a bit concerned about the health of the person opening and working on the watch. Please be careful, You don't want to get any dust particles into anyone's lungs. Those bits of Rodico needs to be thrown over the fence at Hanford, that ought to be a nice daytrip with the Rolls.

Indeed. I would recommend you watch the HBO series Chernobyl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUUWRrj1YI8

gerdson wrote: ↑

June 5th 2025, 9:59pm

Big boner time, indeed. Uhm. I am a bit concerned about the health of the person opening and working on the watch. Please be careful, You don't want to get any dust particles into anyone's lungs. Those bits of Rodico needs to be thrown over the fence at Hanford, that ought to be a nice daytrip with the Rolls.

I definitely wouldn't want to do this daily. Grit and dust disposed of.

$29.75 - holy crap.

That's a grand Cdn. - surprised they poped for them.

Update

Beautiful!!

Great next step in restoration Dr.

For those of you following along at home, Rolex used two different USA case manufacturers for these Sky-Rockets. Mine is a Pioneer Watch Co. case. Interesting design. The crystal is loaded from the back with a threaded retaining ring. I located the original 1939 patent.

The slot diameter is 25.1 mm so I've ordered a 25mm spackle knife.

Next step. Ground the tip of the putty knife down to 25.1mm and easily unscrewed the retaining ring.

At first I thought this back loaded, flagged crystal would be impossible, but im optimistic that the PHD hi-dome will work. I'm assuming the 24.5mm measurement is the outside/outside (widest) measurement. Fingers crossed.

awesome thread.