The present Rolex Tru-Beat impresses not only by its impeccable condition but by its original provenance and memorabilia.

The Tru-Beat reference 6556 was launched in 1954 as a tool watch for doctors and healthcare workers. It is the only mechanical Rolex model to ever incorporate a “dead-beat” seconds mechanism that advances the seconds hand only once per second. This permitted more accurate readings of patients’ pulse rates, however the demand for such a timepiece was quite low, and the reference was soon discontinued. Amongst the small quantities produced, few have survived with the dead-beat mechanism of the Rolex caliber 1040 still intact.

The present example was given to John Barnes, a Rolex watchmaker for training purposes, he then purchased the watch and offered to his aunt Daisy Cox, a British Red Cross medical worker, who quite appropriately needed such a tool watch in her everyday activities.

Mrs. Cox had a long career in medical services with the British Red Cross, the Civil Defense and St. John’s Ambulance working from 1931 well into the mid-1960s. For her exemplarily services, Mrs. Cox received an impressive number of medical medals – which are offered with this lot- including a British 1939-1945 Defense medal, numerous British Red Cross medical service medals and St. John’s ambulance badge.

The present example functions exactly as Rolex originally designed it, with a seconds hand that perfectly advances once every second. Many watchmakers did not have the ability to repair such movements, and switched out the mechanism in favour of typical automatic movements, hence the rarity of a correct example today.