A Super, 1950's Vintage, Yet Incredibly Affordable, Triple Calender Moon-Phase, Complicated Movement of 17 Rubies, Wristwatch, in Rolled Gold By Rex of Switzerland. Hand Winding Movement. An Amazingly Beautiful Collector's Piece.

We show in the gallery two other vintage hi-end collectors watches, of around the same age, and looking very similar to ours. However, the Rolex examples we show are valued at six figures, one for sale by top class watch specialist is $250,000 dollars!.

Important note, we are specialists in many fields, such as antiquarian books, affordable, original antiquities, and military antiques, especially Japanese. But, we are not watch specialists, in any way at all. We have bought many thousands of fine pocket and wrist watches, over the past 100 years, but we have yet to service a single example. We buy them, enjoy brief ownership, and pass them on to collectors, ‘as is’, as antique or vintage collectables, but, always priced accordingly.

This delightful watch we offer is a Circa 1950's Rex triple calendar, moon-phase, plus small seconds dial, watch, in a 34mm yellow gold filled case with steel back. With its original silvered dial, with embossed yellow gold indices and red 'crescent moon' day date on a perimeter arm. Overall, in nice original condition for its age, working, but not inspected for cleaning etc. at all. The lens looks original, but does have the usual old surface scratches and a near invisible very small hairline crack.

It looks extraordinarily similar to the two Rolex examples we show in the gallery, but at a mere fraction of a fraction of the price.

Apparently founded in 1783, Rex was a Swiss watch maker specialising initially in fine pocket watches, day date disk complication pocket watches, and latterly in the 20th century, in wrist watches, however, they are no longer trading anymore.

In its essence, a moon-phase watch relays the 29.5 day lunar cycle by displaying the current phase (sunlit portion) of the moon on the dial of the watch. The 29.5 day cycle is the time it takes to get from a new moon, when it’s not visible, to a full moon and back again. Most often a moon-phase display is referred to as a moon-phase complication since it’s an added feature to the watch similar to the date.

The moon-phase complication was instrumental in developing a perpetual calendar. The first wristwatch with a moon-phase complication and perpetual calendar was by Patek Philippe in 1925 with the reference 97975. Rolex introduced its own version of the complication in 1949 with the reference 8171.

The true magic of these tiny mechanisms is that they are like miniature mirrors, reflecting to the wearer nothing more than the passage of the earth around the sun, decoding this celestial information and compiling it in a tangible and readable format.

Every function that is added to a mechanism requires further math, more gears and greater attention to the precision of the passage of time. These additional functions are aptly referred to as complications.

The triple-date moon phase watch has four extra complications, each marking the next higher increment of time. First we have the inclusion of the date, a common enough complication among mechanical pieces. Next is the addition of the day of the week, still a relatively straightforward addition. Beyond this, the addition of the month, a feature that necessitates further calculation, higher orders of the accumulation of time across many days. Finally, is the addition of a complication which indicates the phase of the moon – from the new moon to the full and back again, it marks the position of the moon in relationship to our position on the planet.

While moon phase clocks have been in existence for centuries (and in some cases even longer!), the first known example of a wristwatch with this level of complication was the Breguet Perpetual Calendar, released in 1929. Not surprisingly, these early moon phase watches trade at incredible values (a version of this early Breguet sold at Christies a few years ago for over $475,000), many brands successfully created moon phase watches of their own, such as REX and Movado, allowing for many great options at much more approachable price points.

As a point of interest, one of the best points about this watch, is, that from only four feet away, when worn on the wrist, it looks near identical to its same aged cousin { the Rolex moon-phase watch}, however, it's finest advantage is that it is £995, not, $250,000.

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