Rolex

Bill
32020

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Did Rolex have a *standing order* to replace "High Rad" dials?

"The story behind the 6536/1 with III-57 caseback and 306.xxx serial is that the owner read an article in the Dutch newspaper by Schaap & Citroen jewelers asking owners of submariner to come back and change it to a less active / radioactive dial version. There where a total of 9 around. This was in the Netherlands around 1960, i have the signed receipt of schaap & citroen...during changing the dial to a lower radiated now 2 colour gilt dial, he got changed the winding crown too, old one is on receipt.."

So we have a semi-official recall of Submariners (not just GMTs) ca. 1960 and the swapping of dials to a demonstrably less radioactive version (the Geiger doesn't lie and the jewelers admitted the motivation, after all).

Now add in these newly recognized T SWISS T 6610 dials (more here and here) and this would strongly indicate that Rolex subsequently issued a standing order to swap these earliest "high radiation" Tool watch dials with newer "safe radiation" versions whenever they might come in for service. Because these 6610 dials are marked with the anomalous "T SWISS T" (which no other Tool watch dial was ever marked until the 1655) we can conclude that these dials were specifically manufactured and kept in stock in the 1960s for such replacements after the Tritium agreements of 1962.

One might also make the leap that the "first replacement" 2-color dials noted by Philpp in the case of the 6536/1 which was recalled in the Netherlands probably contains not much more radioactivity than those dials that would be marked "SWISS T-25" just a few years later. That is to say, that as part of their response to the Strontium 90 scare of 1958-59, Rolex had already moved to greatly reduce the radioactive content of their luminous material well before the international mandate for T for Tritium markings by finding another, less dangerous super luminous compound for their Tool models (most likely Tritium activated phospors). This is probably also why Rolex felt confident in issuing this sticker to accompany their next generation of Tool watch dials prior to the T for Tritium era:



Which is to say that, precise meanings of the Underline and Ex Point aside, from the very start the Dutch Boys have been on to the correct chronology of Rolex's switch away from the highly radioactive luminous material used on the very first Submariners, Explorers, GMTs, Milgauss and Turn-O-Graphs (probably Strontium 90-based). And after the S-90 scare of 1958-9, all of these particular models most likely received the standing order from Rolex that whenever they should come in for service a "radiation safe" dial should be installed, whether that be in the immediate years after the scare or decades later. Perhaps this explains the many different generations of replacement dials for non-crown guards Tool models: different replacement dials manufactured in different eras to different standards but still needing to be manufactured to fulfill Rolex's standing orders and their objective of eradicating these original, highly radioactive dials.
Best,
T.

With permission
Source : tomvox1 - VRF