Reference:971: Difference between revisions

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<small>[[Reference:prince|Prince]] → '''971'''</small>
<small>[[Reference:prince|Prince]] → '''971'''</small>
[[File:Ref 971 hero.webp|thumb|right|340px|alt=Rolex Prince Brancard 971 — Pink Zebra 18K pink and white gold|Pink Zebra: 18K pink + white gold bicolor, Antiquorum 2023 lot 138, hammer CHF 16,250]]


The 971 is the original Brancard. Rolex launched the Prince family in 1928 around an Aegler-patented shaped movement, and the 971 is the reference that opened the line: a flared "stretcher" rectangular case (the French word ''brancard'' means stretcher), a duo-dial with an oversized sub-seconds register at six, and a chronometer-grade movement built to compete with the best of Swiss observatory-tested calibers. The watch acquired the "doctor's watch" nickname because the large sub-seconds register made it usable for counting a patient's pulse off the dial. Production runs from a documented 1928 English hallmark through at least 1938, with the larger 1490 Brancard taking over as the headline reference of the line through the mid-1940s. The 971 is rarer than the 1490 and comes in more documented sub-references (971A, 971U, 971S, plus the Zebra and Tiger Stripe bicolor variants).
The 971 is the original Brancard. Rolex launched the Prince family in 1928 around an Aegler-patented shaped movement, and the 971 is the reference that opened the line: a flared "stretcher" rectangular case (the French word ''brancard'' means stretcher), a duo-dial with an oversized sub-seconds register at six, and a chronometer-grade movement built to compete with the best of Swiss observatory-tested calibers. The watch acquired the "doctor's watch" nickname because the large sub-seconds register made it usable for counting a patient's pulse off the dial. Production runs from a documented 1928 English hallmark through at least 1938, with the larger 1490 Brancard taking over as the headline reference of the line through the mid-1940s. The 971 is rarer than the 1490 and comes in more documented sub-references (971A, 971U, 971S, plus the Zebra and Tiger Stripe bicolor variants).
[[File:Ref 971 hero.webp|thumb|right|340px|alt=Rolex Prince Brancard 971 — Pink Zebra 18K pink and white gold|Pink Zebra: 18K pink + white gold bicolor, Antiquorum 2023 lot 138, hammer CHF 16,250]]


==Core facts==
==Core facts==