The "Prisoner of War" watches from Rolex
©Write Time Partners V, 2000
The story of the Rolex “Prisoner of War” watches is a fascinating one, but a story that has become almost a legend in its retelling. I will, in this short article, try and separate legend from truth and set down the known and independently verifiable facts.
Firstly, the legend; if you were an allied prisoner of war captured by the Germans during World War II, you could write to Rolex, Geneva and they would send a watch to you free of charge.
The reality is only a little different, it seems that this service was only available for British prisoners and not for the French, American or other allies. The letter would be sent to Rolex from the camp via the International Red Cross, who (like Rolex) was headquartered in Geneva. Hans Wilsdorf himself, who wrote a letter that accompanied every watch dispatched to a P.O.W, ran the administration of this programme.
As stated in the first letter, the recipients were expected to pay for their watches in Swiss Francs at the end of the war. However due to economic situation at the end of the war, it was often 1947 or 1948 before foreign exchange resources were available to meet the bills.
The first letter is to a senior officer
in the RAF, who is now a guest of the German Air Force. This was because one of
the stranger German habits during WWII was that each service ran its own prison
camps “catering” to prisoners from the opposing service. This all can be
gained from the address “Stalag Luft 3”, Stalag, meaning “prisoner of war
camp” and Luft being short for “Luftwaffe” or Air Force.
The interesting thing about the letter (other than the fact that Hans Wilsdorf wrote it himself) is what was included with the watch, as listed at the bottom of the page. There was an invoice, the instruction book and the guarantee card but also included was the official chronometer-rating certificate. I suppose as Wing Commander Trumble would have some time on his hands, at least he could now measure it accurately.
The camp Stalag Luft 3 may mean nothing to most of you but if you have ever read the book by Paul Brickhill or the movie (roughly based on it) both called “The Great Escape”; you will know something of it.
The second letter is the most
interesting; as it is a personal letter from Hans Wilsdorf to the parents of a
British Officer taken prisoner, most likely during the fall of France. Note what
Wilsdorf says in the letter “We are looking after his wants in the same way as
for some other British Officers, who are also prisoners in the same camp. Please
rest assured that we will do everything in our power to obtain food or other
articles…”
There are a number of questions about this letter. Why is Wilsdorf writing to the family with this important information? Isn’t this the job of the Red Cross? He also offers the firm’s services as a communication conduit, once again normally the job of the Red Cross.
I have no proof for it but my gut feeling tells me that the subject of the letter “Grahame” may well have been a Rolex employee before the war. And, as he is an officer (note that he is in an “Oflag” or Officer’s camp) was most probably of managerial status and would then have known Wilsdorf. This may also explains why Wilsdorf always calls Grahame, not Captain Smith (or whatever his name may have been). Lending further credence to my theory is the fact that almost every POW Rolex I have seen was a boy’s size Speedking. However the watch that was sent to Grahame was a reference 3525 Oyster chronograph, one of the most expensive watches in the Rolex catalogue at that time.
Note Wilsdorf’s PS is in his handwriting and is further evidence of a personal relationship between Wilsdorf & Grahame.