A Look at Vintage Rolex Watches with Straight Lugs
For decades now, Rolex has been using their recognizable waterproof Oyster case for almost all of their watches, and almost every Oyster has similar tapered lugs. So vintage Rolex watches with straight lugs are relatively uncommon, but there are several–and we’ll tell you all about them.
Athlete/Empire
The “Empire” is the only Oyster Perpetual with straight lugs. It sports a 32mm barrel-shaped case, which is unusual because Oysters almost always have a certain swoopy shape.
Ref. 3548 has a center seconds hand while ref. 3717 has a seconds subdial. Ref. 3877 is just like the 3717 but with a coin-edge case, and ref. 4548 has a domed bezel (instead of the flat-top bezel found on the other Empires). Ref. 4127, the “Rolex Athlete,” is the manual-wind equivalent of the Rolex Empire. You might hear all five of these references described as having “Empire lugs.” They’re hard to find in good condition.
Vintage Rolex Chronographs with Straight Lugs
Eight vintage Rolex chronograph references have straight lugs, and they all have two registers and hail from the 1930s-1940s. Ref. 3371 (35mm) and 3484 (33mm) are both straightforward vintage Rolex chronograph watches with thin straight lugs. The lugs of ref. 3997 (36.5mm) are a bit longer and more sabretooth-like.
Ref. 3666 (35.5mm) has lugs that slant down towards the wrist a bit, while the similarly sized ref. 4100’s lugs are a bit thicker and stick straight out. And ref. 2057, the only vintage monopusher chronograph Rolex with straight lugs, has an attractive 32mm cushion case. Lastly, two square-cased Rolex chronograph references have straight lugs: 3529 (25mm) and 3830 (30mm).
Square Vintage Rolex Watches with Straight Lugs
Aside from those square chronographs, there are a few other square Rolex watches with straight lugs. 4643 and the slightly larger 4645, from the 1940s-1950s, have elegantly curved casebacks and crystals. Ref. 3894 (25mm) has a thinner and more rounded case.
The “pre-Cellini” 1960s square vintage Rolex references 3614, 3617, 9548 and 9347 all have straight lugs, along with various ridges or patterns on their cases. 3643 and its Cellini-era replacement, 3811, have straightforward square cases without textures.
Cushion Case Vintage Rolex Oysters with Straight Lugs
The very first Rolex Oyster models in the late 1920s came in two case shapes: cushion or octagon. Most of them had fixed wire lugs, but some vintage cushion-case Rolex Oysters were given straight lugs.
Ref. 1069 and 2081 are probably the earliest examples, while ref. 3386 was a Rolex model primarily offered in North America in the 1940s.
More on Rolex:
Dennison Cases Etc.
Nowadays, Rolex is extremely vertically integrated. But that wasn’t always the case; Rolex had been buying up their suppliers for decades to get to this point. Rolex used to source parts–and in particular, cases–from numerous firms. The 1950s-1960s seemed to be the historical peak of Rolex’s supplier-chaos.
And while Oyster models are well documented by enthusiasts, there are countless random Rolex dress watches from that era. Cases were made by so many different companies (often with no coherent model number) that it’s almost impossible to keep track of them all. So there are doubtlessly numerous vintage Rolex watches with straight lugs and third-party cases from this time period that I won’t be able to mention specifically.
But we know some models stamped “12379” had cases made by Dennison, for example. And this lovely vintage Rolex Precision has straight lugs and a case made by D. Shackman & Sons. Plus this 33mm model is quite nice.
Metropolitan
While most vintage Rolex dress watches have faded into a blur of obscurity, the “Metropolitan” is one of the few that is well-known enough to have a nickname.
The Metropolitan’s case–always yellow gold–is 35mm wide and only about 8mm thick. Its attractive engine-turned bezel sets it apart from other dress models, and the dauphine hands are nice, too.
Ref. 8952 has a central seconds hand while 4325 has a seconds subdial, but both “Metropolitan” references are otherwise identical. They were made from about 1950-1960.
More on Rolex:
Vintage Rolex Cellini Models with Straight Lugs
By the late 1960s, Rolex had begun calling all their dress watches “Cellini” models, and several of them were given straight lugs. Ref. 3747 has a very attractive cushion case, and if it were larger than 31mm it would probably get more attention. When equipped with a mesh bracelet the straight lugs basically disappear. Then there’s also the even smaller ref. 3762 (28mm).
The Cellini 3830 (a totally different reference than the ref. 3830 chronograph mentioned earlier) is a 30mm model with a “TV case” and a Zephyr bezel. It was effectively replaced by the similar ref. 4084 sometime in the 1980s. 4082 (24mm) is a smaller version of the 4084. Meanwhile ref. 4081 (25mm) and 4083 (33mm) are oval-shaped models with the same Zephyr bezel texture.
Ref. 3831 is a ladies’ oval model with Roman numerals on the bezel, while ref. 3879 has a textured bezel but is otherwise similar.
Ref. 8443 (33mm) and 3833 (31mm) are ultra-simple round dressy vintage Rolex Cellinis with straight lugs and acrylic crystals. Ref. 4112 (32mm) features a sapphire crystal, as do the 4115 (31mm) and 4109 (26mm). In the 1990s the movement was slightly updated and the first digit became a 5 (as in 5109, 5115, and 5112).
The elegant ref. 4310 (along with its sapphire crystal-equipped successor, ref. 4113) appears to have been Rolex’s answer to the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse. Ref. 4114 is similar but a bit squarer. Plus there’s the completely square 3811 model shown earlier in the article. And like many interestingly-shaped vintage Rolex models, they all have straight lugs.
That should give you a good picture of all the straight-lug vintage Rolex options out there. They tend to be small, manual-wind models, but there are definitely some cool ones.
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