Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner Underline

Tudor

Oyster Prince Submariner Underline

7928

11.63

399XXX

Steel case stamped with reference number 7928 between the lugs at 12 and serial number at 6, case back correctly signed and correctly stamped 7928 & 11.63 for the second quarter of 1963. Original ‘fat font' bezel, correct Crown winder and pointed crown guards.

Swiss-only glossy dial with the original lume markers with and original gilt-brass hour, minute and seconds hands all with original lume. The dial signed TUDOR Oyster Prince 200m = 660ftSubmariner rotor self winding - (underline)

Fully signed automatic calibre 390 movement.

Bracelet not original

This is a terrific example of the Tudor underline with the original lume, original gilt hands all with matching original lume, gilt outer minute track and the all-important underline. The dial is near perfect and the case has only been lightly polished and still has thick lugs and the original winder. The bracelet imaged is not original, I borrowed it for the shot and I'm currently sourcing another early riveted example. THE UNDERLINE EXPLAINED There is nothing collectors – and dealers - love more than tiny insignificant geeky features on a vintage watch that makes it different from the pack. The underline (and exclamation dot) were added to the dials of Tudors and Rolex watches between 1962 and1964 to indicate that the luminous radium material used on the dial and hands was being phased out in favour of tritium. These dials still had radium content, but it was much reduced. Watchmakers had known for some time that radium was a very dangerous material. A terrifying example of the dangers of using radium on dials was chillingly illustrated at a war-time dial factory in the U.S. which employed girls, later known as ‘The Radium Girls'. The ill-fated ladies painted the dials using radium, often licking the paint brushes to produce a better point. The awful result was than almost all the girls developed cancers and died. Rolex knew they had to change, so in 1962, to indicate that their dials were changing from radium to tritium, they added an tiny underline under the writing on the dial, or a little dot beneath the vertical lume stroke at 6 – thereby creating what we now call the exclamation dot. On the Tudor 7928 the earliest dials to have an underline were the gilt gloss dials, such as the present example for sale, with gilt lettering and outer track. There are also underline examples from 1964 with gilt minute tracks and silver lettering. However by 1965 all Rolex and Tudor dials had tritium lume and the SWISS mark at the base of the dial was flanked by 2 T's indicating its use.