I bought this little vintage watch earlier this year and was pleased that everything seems to be original on the watch except for the strap. There was nothing wrong with the strap but it had a brand new looking gold plated buckle on it and I asked around to find out what buckle would have been supplied originally... nobody could tell me this. Eventually I spoke to a watch trader who explained that the early watches would have been supplied without straps and sent to the retailers who put their own straps on the watches. Later on they started producing their own and these went through various phases to what we end up with now, modern buckles which are stamped with various stamps by Rolex.
I have always thought a gold watch should have a gold buckle and so I had a good look to find a Rolex style buckle in gold. There are many copies on the fleabay and the few genuine articles they have are all the money. It seems if there are 9ct ones these are few and far between and they are generally either 14ct or 18ct. Eventually I found this buckle from Chrono24 parts section, it is just stamped 585 for 14ct and no other marks... it was described as vintage and a bit of wear can be seen on the crown insignia so I don't doubt it. Whether it is an original part or a replica is not entirely clear to me, and given how many different buckles must have been produced over the years its hard to establish anything except this buckle is gold and in keeping with the watch.
