Mechanism: The 350 is a manual wind Chronometer with sub-seconds. It is rectangle-shaped. It was produced starting in 1932. It was used produced by Aegler for both Rolex and Gruen watches. It was derived from the earlier Rolex 300 movement. It measures 16,9mm x 32,7mm. It was used in many of the Prince models.

Family Notes: Rolex still makes manual-wind watches. Cellini is a line of manual-wind dress watches from Rolex.

The Cellini collection is a contemporary celebration of classicism and the eternal elegance of traditional timepieces, combining the best of Rolex know-how and its high standards of perfection with an approach that heightens watchmaking heritage in its most timeless form.

Type: The Rolex Prince is not only not terribly well known –even to Rolex aficionados –it’s almost shockingly unknown; in the days we had ours in for review, quite a lot of pretty hard-core watch people saw it, and it was mistaken for . . . well, mistaken for just about everything but a Rolex. This is a kind of peculiar circumstance, especially for as immutable-tradition-is-a-virtue bunch as Rolex fans are supposed to be, because the Prince, in fact, goes back one hell of a lot further than any other existing Rolex model –the first Prince watches were made by Rolex all the way back in 1928, which is not that far off from the founding of the company in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf.

The Prince was, and is, a rectangular wristwatch, and the two first models –the famous 971 and 1343 watches –both used a rectangular movement made by Aegler, which supplied both Rolex and Gruen at the time. The movements used for the Prince watches were rectangular and designed to allow the use of a large mainspring barrel that supplied a better-than-two-day power reserve, and a relatively large balance. The original Princes also pre-date the general use of center seconds in wristwatches, but they do have a very large (relatively speaking) seconds sub-dial, which is what’s led to them sometimes being referred to as “doctor’s watches” (thanks to the relative ease the larger dial provides for such chores as timing respirations or pulse beats.)