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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Switzerland (original crown patent); England (Rolex's own GB patents) · Swiss patent for the screw-down crown registered 30 October 1925 (No. 114948); corresponding British patents registered by Rolex in 1926 (commonly cited as GB 260,554 for the crown and GB 274,789 for the waterproof case), with further improvement patents through the following years

Rolex Oyster Waterproof Case and Screw-Down Crown

Partially verified

The Oyster case established waterproof/dustproof construction as a mainstream, marketable feature of the wristwatch rather than a rare specialist novelty, and underpins the case architecture of most modern sports and tool watches.

Paul Perregaux and Georges Perret registered a Swiss patent for a screw-down winding crown in 1925; Hans Wilsdorf recognised the commercial potential, acquired rights connected to the design, and had Rolex register corresponding and further-developed patents in Great Britain covering both the screw-down crown and a screw-back, screw-bezel waterproof case.

The resulting Rolex 'Oyster' case, launched in 1926, combined the screwed crown with a screwed case back and bezel so that the whole case, not just the crown, resisted water and dust ingress; case backs of early Oyster watches list the relevant Swiss and British patent numbers.

This entry follows patent numbers as they are commonly reported in specialist horological research (including collector and archival sources); researchers should confirm exact numbers and dates against the UK Intellectual Property Office historical register and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property before treating any single number as beyond doubt.

How to verify this yourself

Confirm exact patent numbers and grant dates directly against the UK Intellectual Property Office's historical patent records and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property's register, since numbers circulating in collector literature and case-back markings should be cross-checked rather than assumed correct from a single secondary source.

Manufacturers known to have used it

  • Rolex
  • Tudor (related company)
  • widely imitated screw-case architecture across the industry from the later 20th century onward

Related photographs

Watch automatic mainspring
Watch automatic mainspring — Hustvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Boettcher, D., published research on the history of the Rolex Oyster and screw-down crown (vintagewatchstraps.com)
  2. Cutmore, M., Watches 1850–1980

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.