Rolex Antimagnetic 6234

Three scales “ALL BLACK”.

This dial has three clear and different outer scales. - The inside scale, for the minutes and the seconds hands, giving the fifth of seconds.

- The outer scale, for the tachometer, based for 1 mile, as it was usually made for the American or the British markets or several Colonial markets,

Air or Naval forces also used the mile tachometer because of the nautical mile speed calculation.

- The main scale, in between the tachometer and the fifth of seconds scales, is a “decimal” scale (also named “industrial counter”, “production scale” or “conta-pezzi”), instead of the usual telemeter seen on this reference, at this period, we have here a scale going from 1 to 100 units, five by five, without any indication like “telemeter”. 

About telemeters.

Even though this is not clearly a telemeter, let’s remind that telemeters were used for many purposes as artillery, geography, observation (optical, radar, radio, sonar, sound, etc.), photography, etc…  and was used to time a distance between two objects or two facts. For instance the hand of the timer was started when a flash of lightning was observed, and stopped when the thunder was heard. If the hand had been stopped at 9 seconds, you had to simply multiply 9 by 333,333 and the result showed you the distance in meters, here 3000 meters.  

The military purpose.

- The counters’ size. Rolex ref. 6034 watches are usually seen with two kinds of dials: smaller counters, which gives more space for larger hour and luminescent markers, or oversized counters, like the present dial, allowing a better time measurement and for this leaving less space for the hour markers. This is why they bear hand cut and adjusted markers around the counters and less luminescent markers. Those are the dials that militaries would prefer.

- The all-black scales. Ref. 6034’s known so far all bear two-tone scales, the telemeter or the pulsation scale being blue. The present watch is “ALL-BLACK”.

- The provenance. On the present dial the tachometer goes up to 1000 miles enabling the speed calculation for an airplane, a missile or for heavy artillery ammunition. Considering the origin and the age of the watch, the original owner was a military qualified in ballistic engineering and working all around the world, considering also that the watch was purchased new around 1960-1965 (the case serial numbers are for a production in 1959), one can deduct that that the dial was meant to one of the following calculations: angle (Degrees), metric and nautical distances, fequency (Hertz), precision aiming (Mils), acceleration units, etc.

After comparing all these graduations and tables one can easily conclude that this dial purpose was either to mesure a shooting cadence or to read angular grades or mils. 100 grades = 90 degrees; One mil= one-thousandth of an inch or a millilitre or one-thousandth of any graduation base. A calculation for purposes as altitude or distances, trajectories, in case of grades or a calculation for purposes as precision aiming and targeting, in case of mils. 

About the dial manufacture.

The dial plate is brass, probably made by Beyeler, with cast-applied hour markers and crown, engine turned counters and black stamped inscriptions and graduations. The radium just next to the hour markers looks good and is still radium. They are no hour markers nor radium at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock due to the already busy space with seconds, 5ths of seconds, tachometer and telemeter circles crossing.

The feet under the dial seem original and the back of the dial aging matches.

Dial diameter: 29 mm    /    Dial thickness: 4/10^th     /      Dial weight: 2.08 gr.

Eric Tortella