Featuring an in house movement and a Dennison Aquatite case, this Buren Grand Prix would have been a quality Swiss watch.
HOW DO WE DATE THIS WATCH?
Dennison registered the trade marks Aquatite in 1915, and Denisteel in 1934. And we know that Edmund Hilary wore a Smiths watch in an Aquatite case on his successful accent of Everest in 1953. We have an advert from 1948 for a Buren Grand Prix, in a slightly fancier case, but this watch is closer to the Dirty Dozen watches that Buren made in 1944. The movement is also circa 1945, so we are fairly comfortable in 1944-1946 as a likely date of production.
CONDITION
Unsurprisingly the Aquatite case was deemed to be waterproof, and Dennison cases of this time do protect watches (although no guarantees of any water resistance remain of course!). The case has the DQ stamp on the back, standing for Dennison Quality. The main body of the watch is a matt finished alloy, quite normal for the time when higher quality materials were harder to get hold of due to the War. Inside the Buren calibre 140 is ticking away happily. This manual wind movement has fifteen jewel, common for most sub second watches of this period. The other thing to mention being period correct is the case size. Men wore smaller watches in general than today. The Rolex Air-King was launched in 1945 and the King part of the name refers to the king-size (for the day) 34mm case. This will wear small on a man, as shown on the wrist shot, but can also be worn by ladies now. The hands and dial are all original, but the dial does a small mark near three as well as normal patina. The leather strap is new, and could be swapped for a different colour if preferred.
This watch will be supplied with our branded presentation box and our Certificate of Authenticity.
Please see the HD video for more detail. All photos and videos are part of the description and are of the actual watch unless mentioned. We do not photoshop any pictures, and the images are copyright of birthyearwatches.com and should not be used without permission.
SIZE
Width with crown 32.7 mm
Width without crown 30.1 mm
Between lugs 16 mm
Lug to lug length 38.0 mm
Case Thickness 10.5 mm
All sizes are approximate.
Included with this watch is a 1 month guarantee and free delivery to UK addresses. If you live outside the UK we can still deliver to most countries. Please see our Worldwide Shipping information, or Contact Us. Payment can be made by most credit or debit cards, bank transfer or PayPal.
From 1st September 2021 we will be planting a tree for every watch we sell, working with the International Tree Foundation (Est 1922) to make this business positive on carbon. By buying anything pre owned you are effectively reusing what already exists, but this takes it further and makes us feel good.
