The first Perpetual wristwatches appear around 1934.

It was the first truly reliable automatic wristwatch, this coupled with the waterproof Oyster case made the Rolex Oyster Perpetual a world beating wristwatch.

The early Oyster cases needed to be very deep to accommodate the self winding rotor as can be seen in this 1930s Rolex illustration showing a cross section through the Oyster case, movement and rotor.

This deep rounded shape gave the watch its nickname, the "Bubbleback".

There were mainly two types of early Perpetual case back, the flattened illustrated here and the rounded.(Not illustrated).
In this 1930s Rolex illustration the automatic self winding rotor can be seen on the left with the case back removed and on the right the rotor removed to reveal the movement.
A unique spring was developed (4) which would allow the rotor (1) to wind the watch and prevent the watch unwinding with the rotors reverse action.

Copyright © Anthony Green Antiques 1999- 2005