Guide: Comex and Tiffany & Co - Introduction to logo dials

Text: Albin Johansson Image: Eqotime m.fl

In the watch world there are also a lot of interesting collaborations, and sometimes another logo shows up on the dial which in collector circles makes that particular watch extra sought after. Eqotime gives you a guide to what you need to know about so-called logo dials.

A logo dial is, simply explained, a dial where, in addition to the manufacturer's logotype, there is also text or an additional logotype from another party. It can be anything from a retailer's company name to a non-watch-related company that has had its own logotype added to the dial and given away to customers, employees or similar.

We go through some of the more well-known examples of collaborations as an introduction to the subject.

Tiffany & Co

What in many cases makes watches in this segment more valuable than an equivalent without the ”addition” is that in this case the manufacturer has approved an extra logotype, text or similar. A highly topical example of this is the jeweler Tiffany & Co. who has long had collaborations with prestige manufacturers such as Rolex and Patek Philippe.

A history of collaborations

Tiffany & Co. As recently as 2021 made a very talked-about collaboration with Patek Philippe that Eqotime wrote about here. But the famous jeweler's history with watch manufacturers stretches far back in time. Already in the 70s, Tiffany & Co. began selling watches from Patek Philippe with their own stamp. In collector circles, dials with the retailer's name on the dial are often called ”double signed”.

Tiffany & Co. has also had more collaborations and one of the more well-known is Rolex, and it is precisely watches from them that you find the most examples of. There are also examples with Tiffany logotype from other well-known manufacturers such as Omega and IWC, but they are rarer.

The models that have been presented at Tiffany & Co. range from Rolex Datejust and Submariner, to complicated models from Patek Philippe such as annual calendars and grand complications. Alongside this, Tiffany & Co. also sells watches in their own collections.

Currently, Patek Philippe is the only watch brand that Tiffany & Co. has a collaboration with, and you can see some from the collection here.

Rolex and Comex

Further on we go with Rolex which is the uncrowned king when it comes to collaborations and logo dials. Rolex has made logo dials from everything to golf tournaments and Domino's Pizza, to oil companies and Peru's air force. But one of the most well-known collaborations the manufacturer has had was with the dive company Comex.

About Comex

The French company Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises, COMEX, was founded in 1961 and specialized in various types of assignments within deep-sea diving. In the early 1970s a collaboration began between COMEX and Rolex on the initiative of the company's founder Henri-Germain Delauz and Rolex's then CEO, Andre Heiniger. The collaboration mainly had two purposes. Partly it was an opportunity for COMEX to provide its personnel with watches that matched the needs of diving watches. And partly it was an opportunity for Rolex to, in a professional way, get the opportunity to develop products out in the field. In short, the COMEX divers were provided with diving watches from Rolex, this in exchange for COMEX providing Rolex with diving data that could be used in product development.

The watches that Rolex delivered to Comex were various references of Submariner and Sea-Dweller. There exist examples of watches that were delivered both with and without a logo on the dial. But all have Comex engraved on the case back of the watch as well as a serial number.

A source has previously stated to Eqotime that the divers themselves rarely had the logotype on their watches' dials. It was mainly for the officials who worked above the surface, information he received from a retired Comex diver on Corsica. The diver still used his Submariner with Comex engraved on the case back.

Eqotime has previously done a special on the sought-after Comex watches here on the site and also on our Youtube which we encourage our readers to subscribe to. We got the opportunity to take a closer look at the last batch of Sea-Dwellers ever delivered to Comex.

More well-known examples

Some collaborations stretch very far back in time. Bucherer is a jeweler and retailer of wristwatches founded in Lucerne in 1888. They sell various brands in stores around the world, but their collaboration with Rolex is their strongest. In the picture we see an unusual Rolex Prince Jump Hour from 1937 signed with C. Bucherer on the dial. The watch is a very early example of a ”double signed” Rolex and belongs to a collector from Sweden.

It is of course not just private companies and organizations that order watches with their own logotype on. Some of the most sought-after logo dials come from authorities and the military. There, among others, the United Arab Emirates stand for a plethora of watches from different brands, and there are examples of everything from Chopard and Longines to Rolex and Movado with the UAE emblem depicting a falcon on the dial.

Other authorities from the Middle East that have ordered a dial with their coat of arms include Bahrain's Ministry of Defence which can be seen here on a Rolex Datejust from the 80s. The watch belongs to a collector from Sweden.

In summary, there is a plethora of different logo dials and ”double signed” dials. For almost 100 years, retailers and companies have wanted to add their own brand to the luxury manufacturers' watches and examples that were previously unknown are still being found. As recently as this past fall, the editorial team came across an IWC dressage from the 70s marked ”Åke Falk” on the dial, which is a watchmaker from Stockholm founded in 1959.

Who knows what else exists on home turf?