While in Rome in 1997, the hotel we were staying in had pamphlets for places to visit. My wife always picks this stuff up to look over. In the stack was a card that said if you stop by a Bucherer shop they would give you a Rolex spoon. Being a watch collector and since we were heading to Interlaken anyway, we stopped at the store there and got my free spoon. Well after 25 years, over 200+ Rolex watches and several hundred spoons later, I thought I would share a bit of what I have discovered.
One of the biggest misconceptions on the Rolex spoons was that some were thought to be sterling silver. Unfortunately they are not. Pricewise, most of my spoons have been 50 cents to $3, that is about the limit as far as value. With the exception to a few rare spoons that may fetch up to $50 each, All the spoons are silver plated or stainless.
Bucherer started issuing the spoons in the 1950's it is believed with a non Rolex logo design that read Bucherer Watches Lucerne. It included the lion in the bowl of the spoon. Around the same time, they began giving out the first Rolex marked spoon as a promo when you purchased a watch. This spoon had the Rolex displayed in a cutout at the spoon top and also included the lion in the bowl as the signature Lucerne trademark. Cities you can find listed on the spoons include;
Basel - Bern - Burgenstock - Davos - Geneva - Interlaken - Lausanne - Locarno
Lucerne - Lugano - New York - St. Gallen - St. Moritz - Zermatt - Zurich
They issued several variations with the Rose in the center of the handle in a narrow and a broad pattern and then the Swiss Cross in more current spoons.
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The markings on the backs of the spoons indicate silver content. B 100 12, this meant 100 grams of silver was used to plate 12 Normal size spoon spoons, or 8.33 grams of silver per spoon, since these are smaller, the amount of silver would be proportionally less. CB69, if you look close with a loop you can see it is actually 6,9 for 6.9 grams of silver per full sized spoon.
CB with no number is used on stainless steel spoons.
The Burkenstock spoon has no marking on the reverse, I have not identified the materials in these spoons as yet, but most likely plated as well.
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New Video!
Some of the patterns
Pictured above;​​​​​​
First is the Rolex Spoon with the name cutout of the spoon. This is believed to be the first type issued.
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​Second is the Bucherer spoon with no mention of Rolex on it. This was associated with the Bucherer store and not Rolex, but often go hand in hand.
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​Third is Small Rose Top with no city on it and lion in the bowl.
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​Fourth Small Rose Top with "Watches" printed under the banner. City and lion in bowl.
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​Fifth is Small Rose Top, city on handle and decoration in the bowl..
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​Sixth is Small Rose Top with Watches under it in a banner, city on handle and decoration in the bowl,
​Seventh is Small Rose Top with Watches under it in a banner, city and decoration in the bowl,
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​Eighth is the Large Rose Top with Watches under it in a banner, city on handle and decoration in the bowl,
​Ninth is the most current design still used today. It is the Swiss Cross in the top instead of the rose, city on the handle and decoration in the bowl.
​Not all cities were used for each pattern. As more stores were opened in other cities they began to add them.
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NEW DISCOVERY
I have found the spoon above not yet cataloged by others. The Rolex Service Spoon. No other examples have been found that myself and the collectors I know have seen.
I currently have 73 different Rolex spoons. I will add some images of the extremely rare spoons later so stay tuned!
Here is a pic of what I consider one of the "Holy Grail" spoons. It is the St Moritz issued spoon where the city name is pictured in the bowl of the spoon.
Here is a side by side of the Zurich spoon and the Zurich error spoon.