Rolex 2595 Oyster Imperial

Oyster → 2595

Rolex Oyster Royal 2595 in stainless steel, case 81442, engraved to a named RAF serviceman — Rolex Oyster Royal 2595, case 81442, engraved "C.McKENZIE 1250453 R.A.F.", Bonhams London Watches, February 2026

The 2595 is a manual-wind Oyster tonneau documented across seven auctioned watches in steel, 9ct gold, 14K pink gold and 18K yellow gold, made from the second half of the 1930s into the mid-1940s. Every catalogued example that specifies its seconds treatment carries a sweeping centre-seconds hand. Small seconds registers, more common on hand-wound Oysters of the period, do not appear anywhere in this record.

Auction houses have catalogued the reference under five names: Oyster Royal, an unqualified Oyster, Oyster Chronometer or Chronomètre, Oyster Imperial, and the combined Oyster Impérial Chronomètre, once alongside the Italian collector nickname "Ovetto" at a 1998 Christie's sale. None of the seven documented watches shows a self-winding rotor in its catalogue description, so despite surfacing on some Bubbleback candidate lists, the 2595 sits with the manual branch Rolex kept building alongside the Perpetual line.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	2595
family	Oyster (manual-wind)
production	no confirmed range; documented examples run from a case Bonhams dates to 1935 through a Christie's-catalogued watch dated 1945, with three Antiquorum watches and one Bonhams watch clustering around circa 1938-1939
case diameter	29mm across four Antiquorum examples; 30mm and 34mm on two Bonhams examples
case shape	tonneau, two-piece construction
caseback	screw-down; one Antiquorum example explicitly described as flat and small
bezel	smooth/graduated per Antiquorum and Bonhams; fluted ("lunetta godronata") per Christie's on the 18K "Ovetto" watch
crystal	material not established by the cited catalogues
crown	screw-down
winding	manual
seconds	centre seconds on every watch whose catalogue specifies seconds treatment
movement	10-ligne manual, straight-line lever escapement, self-compensating Breguet balance-spring, 17 or 18 jewels; catalogued as "Superbalance" balance (Antiquorum) or an outright Ultra Prima grade (Bonhams, Christie's); no caliber number published
case materials	stainless steel; 9ct gold; 14K pink gold; 18K yellow gold
dial designations	Oyster Royal; Oyster (unqualified); Oyster Chronometer/Chronomètre; Oyster Imperial; Oyster Impérial Chronomètre ("Ovetto")
documented case numbers	81442; 71015; 43243

Where it sits in the line

Rolex kept building hand-wound Oysters after the Perpetual rotor arrived in 1931. Hodinkee's Bubbleback collecting guide calls these parallel manual-wind watches "flatbacks." All seven documented 2595 watches carry manual movements, and none of the seven catalogues describes a rotor, so despite the era overlap with the Bubbleback boom it belongs with the manual branch.

The five catalogue names split unevenly across the seven watches. Imperial branding, alone or combined with Chronomètre, covers three watches: a Bonhams Oxford example, an Antiquorum steel watch offered twice in Geneva in 2003, and the Christie's Milan gold watch. Chronometer or Chronomètre without further qualification covers two more, in 18K yellow gold and 14K pink gold. One steel watch is catalogued as Oyster Royal, and one 9ct gold watch as an unqualified Oyster. Christie's paired its Imperial watch with "Ovetto" in the lot title. That is an Italian collector term; the cited catalogue describes the dial itself as reading no further than the standard Rolex signature.

Production outline

The earliest and latest documented dates sit nine years apart. Bonhams titled its 9ct gold watch by a case marking to 1935, though the cited listing does not detail which hallmark supports that date. Christie's catalogued its 18K gold "Ovetto" watch to 1945. Between those two, Antiquorum dated three watches and Bonhams one to "circa 1938" or "circa 1939." No source states a start or end year for the reference as a whole, and the case numbers on record, 81442, 71015 and 43243, do not span a wide enough or well-anchored enough range to define one.

Antiquorum's two Geneva appearances for a steel, Beyer-retailed watch, in June and October 2003, share an identical case, dial and movement description and identical condition grading on both lot pages. That reads as one watch failing to sell in June at an estimate of CHF 1,200-1,600 and returning four months later at a reduced CHF 800-1,500, again without finding a buyer, not two different watches.

Counting that repeat appearance once, the documented population runs to three steel watches, one 9ct gold, one 14K pink gold and two 18K yellow gold, one of them the "Ovetto." No two-tone example has surfaced, and no source publishes a production total.

Movement notes

Antiquorum's four catalogue entries give the fullest technical picture: a 10-ligne movement, rhodium-plated, with a straight-line lever escapement and a self-compensating Breguet balance-spring, on watches dated 1998, 2002 and twice in 2003 (the same steel watch). Antiquorum names the balance itself "Superbalance" on all four and reports 17 jewels with seven adjustment positions on the 1998 pink gold watch, and 18 jewels with six positions on the 2002 yellow gold watch and the 2003 steel watch.

Bonhams and Christie's instead grade two other watches' movements as an outright Ultra Prima, without using the Superbalance term. Bonhams calls its 9ct gold watch's movement a 17-jewel Ultra Prima timed to six positions; Christie's calls its 18K gold "Ovetto" watch's movement an Ultra Prima with 18 jewels and a monometallic balance regulated in six positions. David Boettcher's blog post "Prima, Extra Prima and Ultra Prima," published on vintagewatchstraps.com, traces the grade hierarchy: Rolex used "Prima" from 1923, and Hans Wilsdorf registered "Ultra Prima" in his own name on 9 December 1930. Boettcher's account covers the grade name; it says nothing about Superbalance, which appears here only as Antiquorum's term for the balance component itself. Bonhams gives no jewel count or grade for the steel RAF-engraved watch beyond "jewelled manual wind," and the Oxford steel watch's catalogue gives no movement detail at all.

None of the seven catalogues stamps or names a caliber number. The specification that does survive across all of them, a roughly 10-ligne manual movement with a straight-line lever, Superbalance balance and self-compensating Breguet spring, matches the Cal. 10½ Hunter (700/710) family on Movements, already treated there as a plausible, not confirmed, home for the manual movements on siblings 2765 and 3009. No stamped example has surfaced for the 2595 either, so the assignment stays open here too.

Dial map

Seven watches carry seven different dial treatments.

Catalogue name	Case material	Dial	Source
Oyster Royal	Stainless steel	Silvered, luminous Arabic numeral hour markers, black outer minute track with Arabic 5-minute markers, blued steel pointed baton hands	Bonhams, 2026
Oyster (unqualified)	9ct gold	Arabic gilt dial with outside minute track, blued hands	Bonhams, 2003
Oyster Imperial	Stainless steel	Cream-coloured, gilt Arabic numerals, outer minute scale 0-60	Bonhams, 2012
Oyster Chronomètre	18K yellow gold	Yellow, radium-coated Arabic and Roman numerals and bâton indexes, "Skeleton" radium-coated hands	Antiquorum, 2002
Oyster Impérial Chronomètre	Stainless steel	Black enamel, inlaid yellow gold bâton indexes, "Feuille" yellow gold hands	Antiquorum, 2003
Oyster Chronometer	14K pink gold	Two-tone pink, radiumed Arabic numerals and indexes, "Skeleton" radiumed hands	Antiquorum, 1998
Oyster Imperial "Ovetto"	18K yellow gold	Black, raised indices and numbers	Christie's, 1998

Christie's is the only house to attach a nickname to a 2595 dial, and it appears only in the lot title. The catalogue's own dial description reads no further than "black dial with raised indices and numbers." "Ovetto" is Italian for a small egg, presumably describing the tonneau case. The cited listing gives no indication that Rolex itself ever used the term, on this dial or otherwise.

Radium and radium-coated markings appear on both gold examples from the earliest years of the record, 1998 and 2002; the two steel watches and the two remaining gold watches do not mention radium in their catalogue text. Centre seconds is the one constant every catalogue that addresses seconds treatment agrees on.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

All seven documented watches have tonneau, two-piece cases. Antiquorum's four catalogues measure their watches at a consistent 29mm; Bonhams measures its steel RAF-engraved watch at 30mm and its 9ct gold watch at 34mm. The cited catalogues do not reconcile that spread, so it stands here as documented, not settled into one figure.

Bezel description also varies. Antiquorum and Bonhams both describe a smooth, graduated bezel in English-language catalogue text. Christie's Italian-language catalogue calls the 18K gold "Ovetto" watch's bezel "godronata," fluted or reeded. Whether that reflects a genuine execution difference on the gold case or simply a different cataloguing convention between houses is not established by the sources at hand.

Crystal material is not given in any of the seven catalogues. All seven watches have a screw-down crown, and Antiquorum's 1998 pink gold watch is the only one explicitly described as "flat and small," the same flat-back framing already documented on sibling 1873. Whether every 2595 shares that back profile is not established.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

Bracelet and strap evidence is thin and inconsistent across the record. The steel RAF-engraved watch carries a brushed riveted expandable Oyster-link bracelet with a signed folding clasp. The 9ct gold watch carries an integral bark-finish bracelet, also with a folding clasp. The Antiquorum steel watch offered twice in 2003 carries a stainless steel link bracelet of roughly 150mm overall. The Bonhams Oxford steel watch came to auction on a later, unassociated strap. The two 18K gold watches and the 14K pink gold watch carry no bracelet or strap description at all in the cited catalogues. No end-link or clasp reference number is documented for the 2595 anywhere in the published record.

Auction record

Venue	Date	Lot	Case No	Material / dial	Movement	Result
Antiquorum, Geneva (Hôtel Des Bergues)	1998-04-18	371	—	14K pink gold, two-tone pink dial	17j, Superbalance, 7 positions	CHF 5,980 (est. CHF 4,000-5,000)
Christie's, Milan	1998-05-20	248	43243	18K gold "Ovetto," black dial	Ultra Prima, 18j, 6 positions	ITL 9,200,000 (est. ITL 5,000,000-6,000,000)
Antiquorum, Hong Kong	2002-06-08	297	—	18K yellow gold, yellow radium dial	18j, Superbalance, 6 positions	HKD 20,700 (est. HKD 16,500-20,000)
Bonhams, London Knightsbridge	2003-06-03	179	—	9ct gold, Arabic gilt dial	17j, Ultra Prima, 6 positions	GBP 528.75 incl. premium (est. GBP 300-400)
Antiquorum, Geneva	2003-06-15	467	—	Stainless steel, black enamel dial, retailed by Beyer Zurich	18j, Superbalance, 6 positions	Est. CHF 1,200-1,600; unsold
Antiquorum, Geneva	2003-10-13	635	—	Same watch as lot 467, re-offered	18j, Superbalance, 6 positions	Est. CHF 800-1,500; unsold
Bonhams, Oxford	2012-05-17	268	71015	Stainless steel, cream dial	Not specified	GBP 312.50 incl. premium (est. GBP 400-500)
Bonhams, London Knightsbridge	2026-02-25	20	81442	Stainless steel, silvered dial, RAF-engraved	Jewelled manual wind	GBP 1,920 incl. premium (est. GBP 500-700)

Eight auction appearances document seven distinct watches across three houses and twenty-eight years. Currencies, estimates and condition vary too widely across that span, Italian lira in 1998, Hong Kong dollars in 2002, Swiss francs and pounds sterling elsewhere, to read as a price series. The steel watch sold in February 2026 is engraved on its screw-down back "C.McKENZIE 1250453 R.A.F.," a named owner's service number and branch. The cited listing does not identify the watch as part of a numbered military contract or issue mark.

Related references

Oyster Royal 1873 — manual-wind contemporary catalogued under the Oyster Royal name
Oyster Chronometer 2765 — manual-wind contemporary catalogued under several model names
Oyster Junior Sport 2784 — manual-wind contemporary with its own catalogue-name spread
Oyster Chronometre Scientific 3009 — manual-wind contemporary, also documented with centre seconds