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Rolex 3478 Oyster Raleigh

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Oyster → 3478

Rolex Oyster Raleigh 3478 in stainless steel with a silvered dial and inner 24-hour track
Rolex Oyster Raleigh 3478, case 184743, Bonhams "Watches: A Private Canadian Collection," June 2023

The 3478 is a manual-wind Oyster tonneau documented across twelve auctioned watches in stainless steel and gold-plated cases, made through the 1930s and into the mid-1940s. Auction houses have catalogued the reference under eight names: an unqualified Oyster, Oyster Raleigh, Oyster Standard, Oyster Recorda, Oyster Viceroy, Solar Aqua, Oyster Commander and Oyster Centregraph. Four of the twelve watches carry a directly catalogued Cal. 59 movement, a Fontainemelon-sourced manual caliber Rolex assigned its own number rather than one of the in-house Aegler calibers used elsewhere in the pre-war Oyster line.

Five of the ten Bonhams watches came to auction together in a single themed sale, "Watches: A Private Canadian Collection," and several of the reference's names, Raleigh, Viceroy, Solar Aqua, and Centregraph, recur on the smaller sibling reference 2784 under an entirely different case-number band. Centre seconds appears on nine of the twelve watches; the Solar Aqua and one Oyster Commander instead carry a subsidiary seconds register at six.

Core facts

detail value
reference 3478
family Oyster (manual-wind)
production no confirmed range; catalogued dates run from "circa 1930" (a Bonhams watch whose own caseback engraving points to WWII service) through "circa 1945" (Antiquorum), with most examples clustering 1940-1943
case diameter 28-29mm across nine watches; 30mm and 30.5mm on two more; one Bonhams watch given only as a 3.4cm case length, roughly 34mm and unreconciled with the rest
case shape tonneau on eleven watches; one (Oyster Standard) catalogued as "polished round"
caseback screw-down on every watch that specifies it; one Antiquorum watch explicitly two-body
bezel not described in any cited catalogue
crystal material not established by the cited catalogues
crown screw-down
winding manual
seconds centre seconds on nine watches; subsidiary seconds at six on two (Solar Aqua, Oyster Commander)
movement Cal. 59 named directly on four watches (Fontainemelon-sourced, 15 or 17 jewels, straight-line lever, monometallic balance); the remaining eight watches are catalogued only as manual wind, without a caliber number
case materials stainless steel; gold-plated
dial designations Oyster (unqualified); Oyster Raleigh; Oyster Standard; Oyster Recorda; Oyster Viceroy; Solar Aqua; Oyster Commander; Oyster Centregraph
documented case numbers 305115; 184743; 219*** (partial); 211382; 171548; 238089; 192762; 157097; 155835; 312077; 177184

Where it sits in the line

 
The plain "Oyster" name, gold-plated, case 305115, sold at Bonhams in 2024.

Antiquorum's own cataloguing of neighbouring reference 3116 notes that a single early Oyster case could be marketed as the Royal, Viceroy, Imperial and Imperial Chronometer. The 3478 record shows the same pattern one case number over: eight names attached to eleven case numbers, split across two auction houses.

Four of those names, Raleigh, Viceroy, Solar Aqua and Centregraph, are not unique to the 3478. 2784, a smaller-cased sibling documented on a different case-number band running roughly 81,000-93,000 and 126,000-128,000, carries the same four names on its own watches. Oyster Watch Co. and the retailers selling under these names applied a shared vocabulary of trade names across more than one case reference rather than tying each name to a single Rolex reference number.

Five of the ten Bonhams-catalogued 3478 watches, the Oyster Standard, both Oyster Recordas, the circa-1930s Oyster Raleigh, and the Solar Aqua, came to auction together in one themed online sale titled "Watches: A Private Canadian Collection." Taken with the caliber picture below, that consignment lines up with the account already documented on 2784: Oyster-cased watches built around the Fontainemelon-sourced Cal. 59 reached the Canadian and wider Commonwealth market under names that had little to do with Rolex's own reference numbering.

Production outline

The earliest and latest individually dated watches sit roughly fifteen years apart on the auction houses' own estimates, though the earliest of those datings is itself disputed. Bonhams titled its steel Oyster Viceroy "circa 1930," but that watch's caseback is engraved to a named Royal Canadian Air Force serviceman, "R288790, W.Laurence Revitt R.C.A.F." The RCAF was not established until 1939, nine years after the catalogue's own dating, and the cited listing does not reconcile the two. Antiquorum's gold-plated Oyster Commander sits at the other end, dated circa 1945. Most of the remaining watches cluster in the intervening years, 1940 to 1943, on catalogue estimates that the houses do not anchor to a hallmark, case-number chart, or other independent evidence.

Eleven distinct case numbers are documented, from 155835 on the earliest-sold watch (a 2013 Bonhams Oxford lot, undated beyond "an unassociated strap") to 312077 on the Antiquorum Oyster Commander. The numbers do not run in a clean order against the houses' own circa-dates: the "circa 1930s" Oyster Raleigh carries case 184743, higher than the "circa 1942" Oyster Standard's case 171548, so case number alone cannot anchor a date for this reference without more examples.

Movement notes

 
Antiquorum's paired lot: a plain Oyster (ref. 3121, left) beside the Oyster Centregraph (ref. 3478, case 177184, right), sold together in Geneva, May 2025.

Four of the twelve documented watches name a caliber outright. Bonhams catalogues two Oyster Raleighs and the online Solar Aqua as Cal. 59, and Antiquorum independently names Cal. 59 on the gold-plated Oyster Commander, describing it as rhodium-plated with fausses cotes decoration, a straight-line lever escapement, a monometallic balance and a blued steel flat balance spring. That is firmer footing than several manual-wind siblings get: Cal. 700 remains only a plausible family match for 2595, 2765 and 3009, and Cal. 59 itself is only a family-level attribution on 2784, unconfirmed by a photographed movement there. On the 3478, two independent houses name the same caliber on watches sold twelve years apart.

Cal. 59 is not one of Rolex's Aegler-built in-house calibers. David Boettcher's research on Oyster Watch Co. identifies it as a rebadged Fontainemelon FHF 30 ébauche, the same movement family Rolex carried over to Tudor after that company's 1946 incorporation. The remaining eight documented 3478 watches are catalogued only as "manual wind" or "jewelled manual wind," without a caliber number.

Jewel count splits 15 and 17 across the record and does not track cleanly with the caliber attribution. The four Cal.-59-named watches split evenly: the two Raleighs run 15 jewels, the Solar Aqua and Oyster Commander run 17. Of the remaining eight watches, four are catalogued at 15 jewels and two at 17; the Bonhams Oxford Oyster and the Antiquorum paired Centregraph lot give no single jewel count at all. No cited source explains the split.

Dial map

Twelve watches carry eight named dial treatments.

Catalogue name Case material Case No. Seconds Dial Source
Oyster Gold-plated 305115 Centre Silvered, luminous filled Arabic numerals, black outer minute track, "SHOCKPROUF" printed beneath the Oyster signature Bonhams, 2024
Oyster Raleigh Steel 184743 Centre Silvered, Arabic numerals, inner Arabic 24-hour markers, red centre-seconds hand, "SWISS MADE" Bonhams, 2023 ("Canadian Collection" sale)
Oyster Raleigh Steel 219*** (partial) Centre Silvered, luminous filled Arabic numerals, inner red 24-hour markers; case signed "Oyster Watch Co" and Rolex Bonhams, 2020 (unsold)
Raleigh Steel 211382 Centre Two-tone silvered, luminous filled Arabic and baton hour markers, blued steel baton hands Bonhams, 2022 (unsold)
Oyster Standard Gold-plated 171548 Centre (red-tipped) Two-tone silvered, Arabic numerals, white outer 1/5th-minute track, outer 24-hour markers Bonhams, 2023 ("Canadian Collection" sale)
Oyster Recorda Gold-plated not given Centre (red) Silvered, outer minute ring, luminous Arabic 1-12 numerals enclosing red 12-24 numerals Bonhams, 2023 ("Canadian Collection" sale)
Oyster Recorda Gold-plated 238089 Centre (red) Silvered with gilt outer minute ring, alternating luminous baton and Arabic numerals Bonhams, 2023 ("Canadian Collection" sale)
Oyster Viceroy Steel 192762 Centre Black, alternating luminous Arabic numeral and baton hour markers, inner 24-hour indication, gilt hands Bonhams, 2023
Solar Aqua Steel 157097 Subsidiary at 6 Two-toned silvered, Arabic numerals, blued steel needle hands Bonhams, 2023 ("Canadian Collection" sale)
Oyster Steel 155835 Not specified Silvered, black Arabic numerals, outer scale 0-60 Bonhams, 2013
Oyster Commander Gold-plated 312077 Subsidiary at 6 Matte silver, luminous Arabic numerals, outer minute track, luminous blued steel baton hands Antiquorum, 2012
Oyster Centregraph Steel 177184 Centre Salmon, two-tone outer chapter ring, "SHOCK RESISTING" printed beneath the wordmark Antiquorum, 2025 (paired lot with ref. 3121)

The Oyster Centregraph is the visual outlier: a salmon dial with a doubled outer track running 5 to 60 in two directions, printed under "SHOCK RESISTING," next to the plain silvered dial of its paired ref. 3121 lot-mate. Every other documented dial is silvered or black with Arabic numerals; both Raleighs and the Viceroy add an inner 24-hour track, but none combines two outer scales the way the Centregraph does.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

 
Rolex Oyster Viceroy 3478, case 192762, engraved on the back to a named Royal Canadian Air Force serviceman.

Eleven of the twelve documented watches have tonneau cases. The twelfth, the Oyster Standard (case 171548), is catalogued as "polished round" instead, a description the cited source does not reconcile against the rest of the record and that may reflect a cataloguing choice rather than a genuine case-shape variant.

Case diameter clusters at 28-29mm for nine of the twelve watches. The Solar Aqua reaches 30.5mm and the Antiquorum Oyster Commander 30mm. The earliest-sold watch in the record, the plain Oyster from Bonhams Oxford in 2013 (case 155835), is given only as a 3.4cm case length, roughly 34mm and well outside every other measurement here. No cited source explains the gap.

No catalogue in this record describes a bezel profile for any of the twelve watches, and crystal material goes unmentioned throughout. Every watch that specifies a case back or crown calls it screw-down; Antiquorum's Oyster Commander is the only watch explicitly described as two-body construction. The Oyster Recorda sold as lot 53 in the Canadian-collection sale carries a replaced screw-down crown, the only documented component swap anywhere in the record.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

Strap and bracelet evidence is thin and mostly non-original. Seven of the twelve documented watches carry leather or lizard straps, several explicitly noted as later or unassociated, paired with a gilt, steel, or signed buckle. The Oyster Raleigh sold unsold at Knightsbridge in 2020 is the only watch catalogued with a bracelet, described only as "associated," fitted with a folding clasp and no reference number given. The Oyster Standard and both Antiquorum watches carry no strap or bracelet description at all in the cited catalogues. No end-link or clasp reference number is documented for the 3478 anywhere in the published record.

Auction record

Venue Date Lot Case No. Material / name Movement Result
Antiquorum, New York 2012-04-25 375 312077 Gold-plated, Oyster Commander Cal. 59, 17j Sold USD 575 (est. USD 800-1,200)
Bonhams, Oxford (Jewellery) 2013-02-05 262 155835 Steel, Oyster (unqualified) Not specified GBP 400 incl. premium (est. GBP 200-400)
Bonhams, London Knightsbridge 2020-02-18 95 219*** Steel, Oyster Raleigh 15j, Cal.59 Est. GBP 500-700; unsold
Bonhams, London Knightsbridge 2022-02-22 62 211382 Steel, Raleigh 17j manual Est. GBP 500-700; unsold
Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris 2023-05-26 26 192762 Steel, Oyster Viceroy, RCAF-engraved 15j manual EUR 960 incl. premium (est. EUR 1,000-1,500)
Bonhams, Online ("Canadian Collection") 2023-06-30 46 171548 Gold-plated, Oyster Standard 15j manual USD 832 incl. premium (est. USD 1,000-2,000)
Bonhams, Online ("Canadian Collection") 2023-06-30 52 238089 Gold-plated, Oyster Recorda 15j manual USD 2,048 incl. premium (est. USD 1,000-2,000)
Bonhams, Online ("Canadian Collection") 2023-06-30 53 not given Gold-plated, Oyster Recorda 15j manual USD 416 incl. premium (est. USD 1,000-2,000)
Bonhams, Online ("Canadian Collection") 2023-06-30 58 184743 Steel, Oyster Raleigh 15j, Cal.59 USD 416 incl. premium (est. USD 800-1,200)
Bonhams, Online ("Canadian Collection") 2023-06-30 66 157097 Steel, Solar Aqua 17j, Cal.59 USD 544 incl. premium (est. USD 400-700)
Bonhams, Watches Online 2024-03-11 23 305115 Gold-plated, Oyster 17j manual USD 512 incl. premium (est. USD 1,000-2,000)
Antiquorum, Geneva 2025-05-10 159 177184 Steel, Oyster Centregraph (paired lot with ref. 3121) 15 or 17j (unspecified) CHF 1,250 for the pair (est. CHF 1,000-2,000)

Twelve auction appearances span three currencies and thirteen years, from Antiquorum's 2012 New York sale to the paired Geneva lot in 2025. The Oyster Recorda sold as lot 52 brought the highest confirmed single-watch price in the record, USD 2,048 incl. premium, in the same online sale as its twin lot 53, which sold for a fifth of that, USD 416, on an identical estimate band with no cited explanation for the gap. The Centregraph result, CHF 1,250, covers both watches in a two-watch lot and cannot be read as a per-watch price for the 3478 alone.

Related references

See also the movement reference, bracelet & clasp guide, and serial numbers by year.

Sources

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