The Rolex Day-Date: A Complete Collector’s Guide

The story of the Rolex Day-Date starts in 1956 with the introduction of two references, the reference 6510 and reference 6511 (defined by their domed and fluted bezels, respectively). Rolex had made more complicated calendar watches in the past – the highly collectible references 8171 and 6062, for example – but this particular combination of fully spelled out day-of-the-week and numerical date displays had never been seen on a watch before.

These are the little innovations that we take for granted today, but that made real waves and had lasting effects. Those models only lasted one year in the catalog before being replaced by the reference 6611, which had a chronometer-certified movement (and said so on the dial). All three of these references were only available in precious metals (yellow gold, rose gold and white gold), which would become another of the watch’s signatures.

Around 1960, Rolex introduced the reference 1803 Day-Date, which is the most iconic version of the watch to date. It had the same 36mm gold case as its predecessors, the hidden-clasp President bracelet (more on that in a bit), the Rolex fluted bezel and any number of dials, ranging from basic champagne and silver to the exotic and gem-set.

When people talk about vintage Day-Dates, they’re almost always talking about the reference 1803, unless otherwise specified. The 1803 had some other cousins in the so-called 1800 series, with the reference 1802 featuring a smooth bezel, the reference 1804 featuring a gem-set bezel, and, later, watches like the reference 1807 featuring the bark-effect finish on the case and bracelet. These watches remained in production through the 1970s, gracing the wrists of everyone from US Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon to athletes Jack Nicklaus and Chris Evert and artists like Andy Warhol.

“A big part of the joy of watch collecting is the different emotions evoked when you look down and see a particular watch on your wrist,” says Geoff Hess, Sotheby’s Global Head of Watches. “A Day-Date tells a special story. It transports you in a different way than a sports watch does. It’s maybe the most iconic watch Rolex has ever produced, and it represents a certain confidence and sophistication that is unlike anything else out there.”

Rolex began updating the Day-Date in 1978 with the introduction of the five-digit references and the addition of quick-set functions to the day and date mechanisms. Aesthetically, the watch still looked very much like it did back in the 1950s, with the same 36mm size and same basic layout. In the early 2000s, a watch known as the Day-Date Masterpiece was introduced with a 39mm case, gem-setting, and a Pearlmaster-style bracelet, followed a few years later by the Day-Date II, with its 41mm case, and a few years after that the Day-Day 40, named for its new diameter. While the Day-Date 40 remains in the collection today alongside the classic 36mm models, these other diameters were short-lived experiments and aren’t typically considered important chapters in the Day-Date’s history.

While trends come and go in the watch world just as they do in fashion, art and music, the Day-Date has endured like very few designs do. It is every bit as culturally relevant today as it was in the 1960s and 70s, with the likes of Jay-Z, Brad Pitt, Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, Ben Affleck, LeBron James and even the Dalai Lama wearing them. Ultimately, it is difficult to have a deep interest in watches without the Rolex Day-Date playing a part one way or another.

Watches

The Complete Guide to Rolex Watch Collecting

Because of the sheer variety of Day-Dates produced over the watch’s seven-decade history, a little scholarship goes a long way when it comes to finding the right one for your collection. There are countless variations, sub collections and oddities that collectors love, each with something special to offer. Here are a few important things to know before you dive into the Day-Date deep end.

Since the basic format of the Day-Date hasn’t changed much, most of a particular example’s personality comes from its dial. These have long been offered in basic variations such as champagne sunburst, silver, various shades of blue and so on. But over the decades Rolex has also made a number of more exotic variations that can be counted among the most special Rolex watches of all time.

The most famous of these are the so-called Day-Date Stella dials, which inspired the brightly colored (and extremely hot) Oyster Perpetual models from 2020. A proper Stella dial is made of hard-fired enamel in extremely saturated colors with a lacquer finish. They take their nickname from the Swiss company Stella, from which Rolex purchased the lacquer, and they come in colors like coral, turquoise and bright green. All Stellas are extremely sought-after, but those in white and pink gold are particularly rare. Beware: There are many counterfeit Stella dials out there, so always buy from a trusted source and do your homework.

There are also many generations of Day-Dates featuring hard stone dials such as onyx, lapis lazuli, malachite, bloodstone and others. In the modern collection, these are often paired with applied gold numerals and markers, sometimes with diamonds added for good measure. However, on the vintage models, the markers were done away with altogether (applying them can easily break an otherwise finished dial) giving these Day-Dates a super cool, minimalist look to them. Again, nearly all variations here are collectible, although certain pairings like coral with pink gold and onyx with platinum command massive premiums due to their extreme rarity.

While the Day-Date is often referred to as the Rolex President or the Presidential, that is actually something of a misnomer. Yes, it’s the watch’s nickname and if you say it everyone will know exactly what you’re talking about – but, if you want to get technical, it’s actually the name of the most common bracelet on which the Day-Date comes mounted. It’s the President bracelet, not the President watch.

What sets the Rolex President bracelet apart is the combination of link shape and the special clasp. The bracelet has a three-link design and all of the links have domed tops and flat backs. The most common versions feature outer links with a brushed finish and center links with a polished finish to give the watch some additional dimension, although there are all-brushed and all-polished versions out there as well.

The key, though, is the hidden President clasp. When closed, the bracelet looks completely continuous around the wrist, with only a little metal Rolex coronet breaking up the symmetry. Pull up on that coronet and the folding clasp pops open, allowing you to slide off the watch. To close it, you just push down on the coronet and it will click into place. It’s both super comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, a type of functional elegance that stands in as a nice synecdoche of the Day-Date itself.

Language isn’t something that comes into play very often in watch collecting. Timekeeping is relatively universal, and even in places where Arabic numerals aren’t in daily use a clock face with 1-12 on it is easily understood. But with the Day-Date, Rolex had something new to contend with: the days of the week. This meant creating different versions of the Day-Date for different markets with the day written out in the local language.

To start, Rolex offered the Day-Date in 11 different languages, including English, French, German and Italian, among others. This expanded over time, especially as the watch became increasingly popular during the ensuing decades. At its peak, Rolex offered 26 languages, including a few such as Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic that do not use the Roman alphabet. Many of these are still available today.

It is not uncommon to find vintage Day-Dates with swapped-out day wheels. Certain languages, such as Japanese and Italian, are particularly popular with collectors, so more common varieties are sometimes modified to make them seem rarer or more desirable. It’s important to know as much as you can about a given watch to make sure you’re acquiring the genuine thing.

At a quick glance, it can be hard to tell exactly what kind of Day-Date you’re looking at and what year it’s from. This is both a testament to the original design’s enduring appeal and a bit of a hurdle for new collectors to clear if they’re going to really delve into everything the Day-Date has to offer. Here is a breakdown of the major generations of Day-Dates, along with the key references every collector ought to know.

The very first Rolex Day-Dates – references 6510, 6511 and 6611 – are critical to the watch’s history and very much worth studying to better understand the model’s origins, but they are exceedingly rare and come to market far less often than the archetypal reference 1803. The bulk of vintage Day-Date collecting can be done within this single reference, and it offers more than enough variety and ample surprises to keep someone interested for a lifetime.

The reference 1803 was produced circa 1960-1978 and it changed very little over that 18-year period. The movement saw minor upgrades from the Caliber 1555 to the Caliber 1556, both of which required slow setting of the day and date displays, and new dial variants were introduced over time, but the bones of the watch held steady. For collectors looking to get into the Day-Date, a basic reference 1803 on a strap offers tremendous value and a ton of look and history for the money (remember, this watch is only available in precious metals, so a gold President bracelet can sometimes cost even more than the watch it’s mounted on). From there, you can explore any number of Stella dials, stone dials, gem-set variations and more, but you don’t have to go crazy to get an incredible watch.

“If you’re looking for something underrated and excellent, look at older, yellow-gold Day-Dates,” says Hess. “A gold Day-Date with a black gilt dial and Alpha hands looks incredible and tells an equally cool story. Maybe add in a day wheel in a different language, and you have something really special.”

The first major overhaul of the Day-Date came in 1978, more than two decades after it first entered the Rolex catalogue. The reference 18038 was the first Day-Date with a five-digit reference number, which accompanied the introduction of the Caliber 3055, bringing both a high-frequency escapement (for better reliability) and a quick-set function for the date. Similarly to the 1803, these came in a dizzying array of styles, including with Stella dials, wood dials, stone dials and more. For a collector, this means you can go as basic or as crazy as you want – from a basic silver dial mounted in a yellow gold case up to Khanjar-adorned versions and dials with combinations of diamonds and rubies.

One easy way to tell an 1803 and an 18038 apart at a glance is to look at the outer edge of the dial – the four-digit watches have a sloped pie-pan edge, while the five-digital watches feature completely flat dials. From a practical standpoint, the reference 18038 also swapped in a sapphire crystal for the 1803’s acrylic. This makes them great daily-wear watches today, since they won’t pick up scratches and nicks quite as easily, and wear more like a modern watch.

A decade later, Rolex brought another innovation to the Day-Date party in the form of the Caliber 3155. This was the brand’s first movement to have the double quick-set feature, letting you easily move both the day and date displays independently from the timekeeping function. It sounds like a small thing, but anyone who has ever owned an earlier Day-Date can tell you just how convenient it is when you’re not wearing the watch day in and day out.

With this came an updated reference number, the reference 18238. Visually, it’s indistinguishable from its immediate predecessor, with the updated movement being the only change made. These would stay in production through the end of the 1990s. Even within the world of Rolex’s enduring designs, it’s still pretty unusual that the Day-Date available in 1999 was almost identical to the Day-Date available in 1970, save the sapphire crystal and movement changes.

This is the era of Day-Dates we are in at the moment (although, if history is anything to go by, it certainly won’t be the last). It began with the introduction of the 118000 series watches in 2000 – the first fully modern Day-Dates, with the core reference 118238. This was the first time Rolex made significant changes to the Day-Date case, widening the lugs while keeping the 36mm diameter and adding a repeating “Rolex” engraving inside the rehaut (an anti-counterfeiting measure found on all modern Rolex watches). The President bracelet also received major upgrades, with solid links and a new hidden clasp mechanism, called the Crownclasp, that is meant to be more secure and comfortable.

At first, these watches used the same Caliber 3155 found in the preceding five-digit models, but in 2015 that caliber received upgrades of its own in the form of a Parachrom hairspring, which makes the watch more resistant to magnetism, and tighter regulation, now to +2/-2 seconds per day. These carry through to the Caliber 3255 that powers current Day-Date models, including the standard bearer, reference 128238.

The Day-Date has always come standard with a 36mm precious metal case, as it still does today. However, that hasn’t prevented Rolex from experimenting with other form-factors for the Day-Date, which have achieved varying levels of popularity over the decades. The first of these is the almost entirely forgotten Rolex Day-Date Masterpiece, which was an early 2000s creation with a 39mm case, gem-set bezel and a Pearlmaster style bracelet instead of the traditional President. It was short lived and not particularly beloved, and as a consequence is among the least collectible Day-Dates, despite its relative rarity.

A more full-fledged up-sized Day-Date arrived in 2008 in the form of the Rolex Day-Date II. Introduced to celebrate the brand’s 100th birthday, the watch took the familiar complication and put it in a broader 41mm case with a more pronounced bezel, giving the watch a much bolder look. The reference 218238 and its siblings (reference 218235 for the Everose gold model, for example) got a seven-year production run before Rolex decided to make yet another change to the larger Day-Date model.

The most recent evolution of the non-36mm Day-Date is the Rolex Day-Date 40 with its namesake 40mm case. While that might not sound like a big change from the 41mm Day-Date II, the watches are completely different in personality. The Day-Date 40 has the same overall design of the smaller Day-Date, with the slimmer bezel, narrower lugs and more restrained dial proportions. It’s a classic 36mm Day-Date, just a bit larger. The reference 228238 is the basic yellow-gold model, and it remains in production today. As with previous generations of Day-Dates, a wide array of dials are available from lacquered colors and hard stones to gem-set and laser-engraved.