Reference:4453: Difference between revisions

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The 4453 is a manual-wind Oyster Royal ~~documented~~ in two ~~genuinely independent watches~~. ~~One, retailed by Asprey of London with a~~ white enamel ~~dial~~, ~~was catalogued by Antiquorum in 2013~~ as having belonged to Charlie Chaplin. ~~The other,~~ a ~~plainer~~ steel example with a printed silvered dial~~, sold at Bonhams a decade later after failing to sell five months earlier~~. The ~~two results~~, ~~detailed in the Auction record below~~, ~~span~~ a wide ~~gap driven almost entirely by provenance rather than by any documented rarity difference between the two dial types~~.

The 4453 is a manual-wind Oyster Royal represented in two auction records reviewed here. Antiquorum catalogued one white-enamel, Asprey-retailed example as having belonged to Charlie Chaplin. Bonhams recorded a second steel example with a printed silvered dial; it appeared in two listings before selling in December 2023. The lots differ in provenance, condition, and dial, so their results cannot be used to isolate a reference-wide price effect.

==Core facts==

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==Where it sits in the line==

Rolex sold manual-wind Oyster Royal watches alongside the automatic Perpetual Bubbleback line through the 1930s to 1950s, aimed at buyers who wanted the waterproof Oyster case without the automatic movement's added cost. The 4453 belongs to that manual branch. Its numerical neighbor, ref. 1873, is another Oyster Royal ~~already~~ documented on this wiki ~~with~~ a ~~similarly thin two-lot~~ corpus ~~— both references share the pattern of~~ a ~~scarce, individually distinctive population rather than a well-documented~~ production run.

Rolex sold manual-wind Oyster Royal watches alongside the automatic Perpetual Bubbleback line through the 1930s to 1950s, aimed at buyers who wanted the waterproof Oyster case without the automatic movement's added cost. The 4453 belongs to that manual branch. Its numerical neighbor, ref. 1873, is another Oyster Royal documented on this wiki from a small auction corpus. Neither page establishes a production run from those records.

==Production outline==

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The two documented examples show two very different dials. Antiquorum's watch has a white enamel dial with painted radial Arabic numerals, an outer 1/5th-seconds track with five-second Arabic markers, blued steel spade hands, and a retailer signature reading "Asprey." Bonhams' watch has a two-tone silvered dial printed "ROLEX OYSTER ROYAL" and "SHOCK-RESISTING," gilt baton markers with luminous dots, gilt Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9, luminous-filled hands and a blued centre-seconds hand.

~~With~~ two ~~documented examples this is recorded as~~ the ~~reference's full known~~ dial ~~range rather than~~ a ~~settled variant table~~.

These two lots document the dial treatments described here. They are not a complete factory or surviving-watch dial survey.

==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==

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The Bonhams watch was first offered, unsold, as lot 28 of "Watches: A Private Canadian Collection" in June 2023 (estimate USD 1,500–2,500), then re-consigned and sold five months later — the same physical watch across two listings, not two examples.

The ~~forty-fold gap between the~~ two results ~~tracks~~ provenance ~~and dial~~ condition, ~~not a documented rarity difference between~~ dial ~~types~~. Two ~~results from two individually distinctive watches~~ are ~~not enough~~ to establish a price pattern for the reference as a whole.

The two results differ substantially, but the catalogues also describe different provenance, condition, and dial configurations. Two lots are insufficient to establish a price pattern for the reference as a whole.

==Notable provenance==

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-The 4453 is a manual-wind Oyster Royal documented in two genuinely independent watches. One, retailed by Asprey of London with a white enamel dial, was catalogued by Antiquorum in 2013 as having belonged to Charlie Chaplin. The other, a plainer steel example with a printed silvered dial, sold at Bonhams a decade later after failing to sell five months earlier. The two results, detailed in the Auction record below, span a wide gap driven almost entirely by provenance rather than by any documented rarity difference between the two dial types.
+The 4453 is a manual-wind Oyster Royal represented in two auction records reviewed here. Antiquorum catalogued one white-enamel, Asprey-retailed example as having belonged to Charlie Chaplin. Bonhams recorded a second steel example with a printed silvered dial; it appeared in two listings before selling in December 2023. The lots differ in provenance, condition, and dial, so their results cannot be used to isolate a reference-wide price effect.
 ==Core facts==
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 ==Where it sits in the line==
-Rolex sold manual-wind Oyster Royal watches alongside the automatic Perpetual Bubbleback line through the 1930s to 1950s, aimed at buyers who wanted the waterproof Oyster case without the automatic movement's added cost. The 4453 belongs to that manual branch. Its numerical neighbor, ref. 1873, is another Oyster Royal already documented on this wiki with a similarly thin two-lot corpus — both references share the pattern of a scarce, individually distinctive population rather than a well-documented production run.
+Rolex sold manual-wind Oyster Royal watches alongside the automatic Perpetual Bubbleback line through the 1930s to 1950s, aimed at buyers who wanted the waterproof Oyster case without the automatic movement's added cost. The 4453 belongs to that manual branch. Its numerical neighbor, ref. 1873, is another Oyster Royal documented on this wiki from a small auction corpus. Neither page establishes a production run from those records.
 ==Production outline==
@@ Line 76: / Line 76: @@
 The two documented examples show two very different dials. Antiquorum's watch has a white enamel dial with painted radial Arabic numerals, an outer 1/5th-seconds track with five-second Arabic markers, blued steel spade hands, and a retailer signature reading "Asprey." Bonhams' watch has a two-tone silvered dial printed "ROLEX OYSTER ROYAL" and "SHOCK-RESISTING," gilt baton markers with luminous dots, gilt Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9, luminous-filled hands and a blued centre-seconds hand.
-With two documented examples this is recorded as the reference's full known dial range rather than a settled variant table.
+These two lots document the dial treatments described here. They are not a complete factory or surviving-watch dial survey.
 ==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==
@@ Line 117: / Line 117: @@
 The Bonhams watch was first offered, unsold, as lot 28 of "Watches: A Private Canadian Collection" in June 2023 (estimate USD 1,500–2,500), then re-consigned and sold five months later — the same physical watch across two listings, not two examples.
-The forty-fold gap between the two results tracks provenance and dial condition, not a documented rarity difference between dial types. Two results from two individually distinctive watches are not enough to establish a price pattern for the reference as a whole.
+The two results differ substantially, but the catalogues also describe different provenance, condition, and dial configurations. Two lots are insufficient to establish a price pattern for the reference as a whole.
 ==Notable provenance==