Here are the Bottom Dial razors! These are rare and exciting beasts. Many fledgling collectors would love to get their hands on one of these razors. However, it is not so easy as they are very rarely found in the wild and the most "common" of these rare razors sell for over $1000 on the popular auction sites. In the Bottom Dial Family picture located to the left there are the three (3) types of Bottom Dials. The two types on the left are both 1-5 position Bottom Dials. Please notice the main difference between the two bottom dials on the left and the one on the right is the terminating label number on the adjustment dial - the two on the left terminate with a "5" and the one on the right terminates with a "9".
As far as rarity, the Black Dial 1-5 type is the most rare; maybe 10 of these exist. Next is the Nickel Dial 1-5 type; about 20 of these exist. Both of the 1-5 Position types were Gillette prototypes and were for research purposes only. The Nickel Dial 1-9 type was actually sold at the retail level so there are more of these are available. I would say there are about 3 or 4 dozen of these still in existence today.