Spot On - Tudor Cotton Bowl Classic 1972

As vintage watch passionado’s and collectors we are always happy to share with you some of the love and stories about certain watches. Today we want to share with you the story about a cool watch that might be less prestige in the catalogues of the big auction houses, but still a rare and special watch at a much more accessible fun.

The Oyster Gift

The nine years from 1967 to 1976 are an exciting period for fans of American Football who also happen to enjoy vintage Rolex and Tudor watches. The Rolex group began their involvement with the college football annual final in 1967 when Air King watches were given to the participants of the game. After four years the switch was made to Tudor.

Cotton Bowl Stadium

The Cotton Bowl is a stadium in Dallas, Texas that was constructed in 1930. Since its opening, the stadium has been used to host numerous sporting and musical events. In terms of American Football, the stadium was the home of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s and a number of college teams. The stadium has also hosted the Dallas Tornado football (soccer) team and hosted a number of games in the 1994 World Cup. The ‘Texxas Jam’ rock festival was one of the biggest rock music events in the USA and was held there throughout the 1980s as was Eric Clapton’s 2004 Crossroads guitar festival.

The Classic

One of the longest running events, however, is the Cotton Bowl Classic, a college football game that was a championship game between two of the best teams of the season selected from across all the top college football conferences. There are many such ‘bowl’ games played each year, but the Cotton Bowl is special because from the first game onwards each year, the teams have been awarded watches instead of the much more common rings. The players, coaches and administrative staff all receive watches and the player watches have their names engraved on the caseback.

The Watches

1967 was the first year that Rolex were involved and the presentation watch was an Air King reference 5501, with yellow gold crown and bezel. In 1968 the teams received a reference 1500 Date watch before a switch to Rolex Datejusts for 1969-1971 (although some Tudor Date models were maybe issued in 1971 too). The full switch to Tudor occurred in 1972 with the 34mm Oysterdate watch and then continued from 1974 to 1976 with the jumbo Date & Day watches reference 7017 (the smooth bezel version).

1972 Cotton Bowl Classic 7996/0

The watch we are offering for sale here on Bulang & Sons is a player’s watch from the 1972 game. The game was between Penn State and the Texas Longhorns, Penn State being the victorious team on the day. In 1972 the watches given away were the Tudor Prince Oysterdate 7996/0 watches. These 34mm automatic Oyster watches featured a roulette date wheel and the players had their name engraved on the caseback. The watches came on a C&I rivet bracelet.

1970s Cool Curated Package

We love the cool look of this watch, with the green logo and the red date giving a funky 1970s feel to it. These dials were done by Rolex and feature none of the regular text on the dial other than the applied shield at 12 o’clock.


We have curated an amazing package for this watch, including an original match programme featuring a photo of the player to whom the watch was given – Jim Scott an Offensive Halfback.

We have also managed to track down an original match day ticket to be included with this once in a lifetime opportunity.

The final addition is a cool vintage 7-Up sports back, in a perfectly complimentary green and red…just the thing to add to that cool 70s vibe that you’ll get when you wear this amazing vintage Tudor watch.

Please email us with any questions!

The era

Its also great to see the advertisement in the magazine, as it gives us a great view on feel and lifestyle of that era the watches where new. For some of us it might pick up on memories, for others it gives us a smile feels almost unreal, in todays all your world and data is in a handheld phone. See how life has changed in the time this watch has seen on the wrist of its owner..