Electric Wood Story Of Rolex’s First-generation Cola Circle Replica Watches Swiss.

The Coca-Cola circle originated from Rolex in 1954, the first GMT-Master, with a model of 6542. GMT-Master is developed at the request of Pan-American Airlines. Pan-American requires Rolex to create a watch that simultaneously tracks multiple time zones. In this way, pilots across the time zone can track the time of the family.

Rolex developed GMT-Master 6542 at the request of Panmei. This watch has a bezel made of Bakelite Bezel, with blue and red colors. This is the cola circle of cousins. The bezel is made of two colors so the pilot can easily distinguish the day and night at home.

The electric bezel is equipped with luminous numbers made of radium. This allows pilots to read the time even under dark conditions like the cockpit. However, the well-known cola circle is two types of aluminum and modern ceramics. It is rarely heard of the cola circle of electric wood (resin). What is going on? Let me tell you the story.

So what is electric wood?

Scientist Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented electric wood in 1907. BAEKELAND is an American and was born in Belgium in 1863. When he was 21, he received a doctorate from Gente University and taught there until he founded his own company to sell his invention, “Vetox.” Phenolic resin is a trademark of synthetic resin. This resin is called phenolic resin -a hard and corrosive synthetic plastic with anti-crushing, acid resistance, and electricity resistance characteristics. It is the first arm-stable synthetic plastic that is heat-resistant and does not melt. Electric wood is the first variety of industrial plastic production, marking the opening of the plastic era.

BAEKELAND began to find a substitute for worm glue in 1905 and invented “Bakelite.” He made a stroke by selling Vetox and tried to improve the hardness of the wood by using synthetic resin similar to electric wood. He finally found an exclusive new formula, created electric lumber, and was named after his name. He applied for a patent in 1907 and founded General Electric Corporation in 1910. At the beginning of the 20th century, Electric Mu was first applied to the home appliances and power industry for the first time, especially after the First World War. In the following decades, it continued to be used for electronic parts. Electric wood was popular in the 1920s when new colors were introduced and used for kitchenware and furniture. It is regarded as an apparent American achievement and has been widely praised in the media. The first phase of the plastic magazine even put it on the cover.

However, the patent of electric wood expired in 1927, and the company began to face increasingly fierce competition from companies providing similar materials in the early 1930s. BAEKELAND sold the brand to United Carbides and Carbon Corporation in 1939 (currently a joint carbide company and is now a subsidiary of Tao’s Chemistry Company). In 1992, the joint carbides sold the trademark to Georgia-Pacific Corporation, founded in 1927.

In the last century, electric wood has been considered a universal material. Various items are made in electric timber, including jewelry, telephone, musical instruments, and replica watches swiss!

1931 Aixin Electric Wood Telephone

Electric wood in the watchmaking industry
During the popularity of electric wood, various manufacturers noticed that electric wood could be used as a watch bezel, and Rolex is one of the representatives. Rolex is, of course, not the only brand that uses electric bezels. Wittnauer uses electrolytic bezels for diving and sports swiss fake watches, and Elkin is also used on the bezel of the diving watch. Many old-fashioned diving watches in the 1960s and 1970s use electro-wood bezels, such as Bulova Oceanography and some of the early reference Omega Seamaster 300. It is a viral material in the watch industry and even the production of electric wood as a watch box in the earliest days.

Why is electric wood so good? Why did Rolex stop it?

Because the electric bezel is proven to be crispy and easy to crack, and everyone knows that due to radioactivity, breaking leads to radiation leakage.

Therefore, Rolex recalled all 605 Bakelite GMT-Masters exported to the United States because the atomic energy committee found that the radioactive radiation level of the watch was too high. As shown in the following press releases, Rolex provides free to replace the bezel. Considering this, the production cycle of the GMT-Master 6542 electric bezel is concise. In 1956, Rolex changed the material to aluminum.

In addition, GMT-Master has two variants: one is stainless steel, and the other is solid gold. The stable gold version is rare, and the electric wood bezel was initially used. However, this bezel is not blue and red. To match the golden color, the electric bezel is brown. It is rare now that only a few occasionally appear in the auction.

Sotheby’s 2013

The aluminum bezel used by Rolex is more durable than the previous plastic electric wood embedded. However, the aluminum ring does not use radium luminous light, which means the proneness at night is not as good as the wooden rubber ring. And the aluminum bezel also changed the appearance of 6542, making more top players more interested in the original electric wood GMT.