Rolex Oyster No. 34075

A checked version of this page, approved on 14 October 2026, was based on this revision.

Oyster → 34075

Rolex Oyster No. 34075, a small 9ct gold octagonal watch with wire lugs — The Gleitze Oyster, Sotheby's Geneva 2025 lot 134

Christie's called it “Oyster Precision, No. 34075”; Sotheby's later catalogued it as Oyster reference 34075. Both records identify the same 9ct gold octagonal watch by its caseback engraving for Mercedes Gleitze's Vindication Channel Swim on 21 October 1927. The two catalogues document this watch; they do not establish a production series under the number.

Core facts

detail	value
catalogue number	No. 34075 (Christie's); reference 34075 (Sotheby's)
date and marks	Christie's dates the watch to 1926 and reports Glasgow marks for 1926; Sotheby's reports Glasgow marks for 1926/1927
family	Oyster, manual wind
case	9ct gold, octagonal, wire lugs; 31 × 27 mm (Christie's)
dial	Pink-gilt in 2000; described as a later salmon dial in 2025
movement	9¾-ligne Hunter upgraded to Cal. 600; 17 jewels (Sotheby's)
inscription	“The Companion ‘Oyster’. Vindication Channel Swim. October 21st. 1927.”

Case and inscriptions

The case is a small octagonal form with fixed wire lugs. Christie's gives its dimensions as 31 × 27 mm and describes a milled bezel, screw-down crown and milled-edge screw-down back. Sotheby's places the stamps “R.W.C. LTD.,” “7 World's Records” and “Patent Applied for 114948” inside the caseback, and lists the Oyster Patent winding crown separately.

Christie's transcribes the exterior back as naming “Miss M. Gleitze” and “The Companion ‘Oyster’” for the Vindication Channel Swim on 21 October 1927. The inscription ties this object to the Vindication attempt. Rolex's general history says Gleitze wore an Oyster during a 1927 Channel crossing but does not identify the watch by number. The number and object-specific inscription come from the auction catalogues.

Owen Lawton identifies CH114948 as the Perret and Perregaux crown patent, distinct from the Oyster case patent CH120851 and improved crown patent CH120848.

Inside caseback stamped R.W.C. LTD., 7 World's Records, Patent Applied for 114948 and 34075 — Inside the caseback, Sotheby's lot 134

Movement

Christie's described a 17-jewel nickel-finished Rolex Precision movement. Sotheby's gives more detail: a rhodium-finished 9¾-ligne Hunter movement upgraded to Cal. 600, with 17 jewels and a patented Super Balance. The catalogue does not date the upgrade. Cal. 600 is the movement's documented later state; its original specification is not recorded.

Dial

Christie's described a pink-gilt dial with black Arabic numerals, subsidiary seconds and black hands in 2000. Sotheby's called the present dial a later salmon dial in 2025. Neither catalogue dates its installation; only Sotheby's explicitly identifies it as later.

Bracelet and chain

The Sotheby's photographs show a chain attached to the watch. The catalogues give no account of its original delivery or use during the 1927 swim; its fitment history remains undocumented.

Provenance and auction record

Christie's recorded the watch as having passed from Gleitze by descent to the consignor. The catalogue also records its display at Rolex's 50th Anniversary Reception in Greenwich on 22 September 1976. It appeared as lot 714 in London on 12 June 2000.

Sotheby's offered it as lot 134 in Geneva on 9 November 2025, describing it as a pre-production prototype and reporting Glasgow import marks for 1926/1927. “Pre-production prototype” is Sotheby's catalogue wording; neither cited catalogue identifies another watch with the number 34075.

Gallery

The Gleitze Oyster, whole watch
Inside caseback
Movement

Sources