Reference:3716: Difference between revisions

Antiquorum’s 2008 catalogue and collector Marcus Siems’s 2024 essay “The Deceptive Oyster — Meet the Rolex ‘Empire’” pair the 3716’s subsidiary seconds with the center-seconds ref. 3548. Both describe the straight, sloped-lug case style collectors call Empire. “Empire” appears in later catalogue descriptions. Antiquorum says period advertisements used “Impero”; the 2008 catalogue does not reproduce the advertisement.

The catalogues distinguish the 3716 from the 3548 by its subsidiary seconds rather than center seconds. They also show variation in metal, dial, and bracelet. Siems reports finding 18 publicly known 3716s; that count describes the examples in his survey.

Siems proposes about 1938–44 for the Empire group. Auction catalogues date individual 3716s to circa 1940, circa 1942, circa 1943, and circa 1945–46. Antiquorum's 1989 catalogue dates a pink-gold example to the 1950s. The catalogue dates conflict, so the reference's production span remains uncertain.

Heritage's 2017 lot describes an inscription on case 56420 reading “Recuerdo de San Julian Diciembre 1946.” The inscription dates the dedication to December 1946; it does not independently date manufacture. Accademia Fine Art prints the serial as “46.742.” The cited serial charts do not establish a year for that number.

The auction descriptions identify automatic movements around 9¾ lignes. Antiquorum's 1995 record and Christie's description of case 54524 give 19 jewels. Monaco Legend describes case 208572 as a nickel-finished lever movement without a numeric caliber.

The caliber number is unsettled. The Vintage Rolex Field Manual and Antiquorum list 635; Siems and WatchNet Japan assign 620. Antiquorum also dates Cal. 635 to 1940–51, a catalogue statement rather than a factory record. No cited factory record or securely legible movement marking reconciles the two assignments.

| Circa 1945 pink-gold example; case 54524 reappears in Monaco Legend's 2020 catalogue