1947 Tudor Oyster ‘Greenland Expedition’ Men’s 35mm Steel Manual Watch 7804

1947 Rolex Tudor oyster ref 7804 Greenland expedition men’s 35mm steel wrist watch full working order keeping time

This iconic watch was used in 1952 on the British North Greenland Expedition. Primarily a research and training exercise, the expedition was led by Commander James Simpson with representatives of the armed forces and the field of science. As well as research work, the BNGE was an opportunity to train the military servicemen in Arctic conditions. The expedition was almost entirely carried out by the British, but the Danish Army did provide a Captain, an army surveyor, who was sadly the one fatality of the mission in 1953.

In total, 30 men took part over two years. Each man was loaned a Tudor Oyster Prince reference 7808. The stainless steel waterproof watches were 34mm in diameter and were delivered on either leather straps or straight end-link Oyster bracelets. Hans Wilsdorf envisioned that Tudor would have all the quality of a Rolex but at a more accessible price point. To achieve this Tudor used the two key ingredients of the successful Rolex watches — the Oyster case and the self-winding movement.

It seems the watches performed exactly how Wilsdorf had hoped. According to expedition member Captain JD Walker, “Despite these trials, occasional time signals broadcast from England proved that my Rolex Tudor Prince watch was maintaining a remarkable accuracy. On no occasion did it require to be wound by hand.” Tudor termed these field trials as destructive testing, which coincided with a then-new advertising campaign that centered around Destructive Trials for Tudor watches. The premise of the campaign was about how well the Oyster Prince performed under extreme conditions such as wood cutting, pneumatic drilling and life on the wrist of a fireperson. In essence, Wilsdorf created a watch that both talked the talk and walked the walk!