Rolex

Rolex 3525 “POW” Chronograph

Throughout the Second World War, Rolex—in defiance of Switzerland’s neutrality—availed the 3525 to officers imprisoned in POW camps. The watches would be sent directly to the camps to the attention of the requesting officer, for purchase on credit. Upon the conclusion of hostilities, the recipient would then pay for the watch. Such is a testament to the character of Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf; an outspoken supporter of the allies during the war. 

While this watch was owned by an RCAF pilot, the story of how it came into his possession is borne of love, not war. 

Sergeant Dale Hildebrand, of Vermilion Alberta, Canada was 19 when he joined Her Majesty’s Royal Canadian Air Force. Stationed in the United Kingdom, he flew from 17 different air bases between the years 1942 and 1944. According to available flight logs, he flew missions in his Bristol Beaufighter nearly every day during that time. By August of 1944, he had logged almost 800 hours in the air in just that year. 

During one night mission, his aircraft sustained heavy damage, caught fire, and an emergency landing was forced. Hildebrand, by a stroke of luck, was near enough to an airstrip to safely touch down, with thanks to a communications operator in the strip’s tower. After Hildebrand and his co-pilot safely exited the wreckage, it the Beaufighter continued to burn into the night and was destroyed.

Hildebrand, convalescing at the air base while his fighter burned, the radio operator who guided him to safety came down from the tower to meet him. Her name was Corporal Pearl Wells. Dale Hildebrand’s future wife and mother of their daughter.

Thought the war they stayed in close contact and eventually married in Southwick, West Sussex in 1943. 

When Pearl was compassionately discharged from the RAF, she used a portion of her pay to buy Dale his prized Rolex Reference 3525. It came to be his daily companion for the rest of his life.

Fast-forward to 1952, after some time in the private sector, Hildebrand rejoined the RCAF as a flying instructor at the new airbase in Saskatoon. On August 18th, his training aircraft went down over Redberry lake; a 12 by four mile body of water. While Hidebrand’s apparent skill allowed him to “land” the plane safely in the water, sadly he and another crew-member drowned in expansive lake. One survived. 

A massive search and rescue operation was initiated, which went on for two days before Canadian Navy divers were able to recover the bodies and the aircraft. Then Flying Officer Dale Hildebrand’s Rolex 3525 was repatriated to his widow and daughter.