Rolex Day-Date - which one to buy?

[delays]

For me, even though it’s a fairly “marmite” watch, the yellow gold Rolex Day Date has become a sort of “exit watch”. I think I read Jack Forster’s article on Hodinkee at just the right / wrong time, depending on how you see things, for this watch to latch in my head.

I’m mulling over the idea of pitching in a few of my current watches and seeing if I can make it happen.

As always with a Rolex, there are several references available. I suppose what I’m looking for is the “best fit” between quick-set date and a more robust bracelet that’s more resistant to stretch than the earlier DDs.

For those more educated than I in these watches, what reference / age would you recommend?

[Haywood_Milton]

I would look for the best condition, late 18238 that you can buy, the state of its 83858 President bracelet being your primary focus.

That model's 3155 calibre movement offered the double-quickset method of changing Day and Date quickly and independently. I don't see any great value in later tweakery to the engine.

The 118238 series saw no significant improvement except (after a year or two) the introduction of the 83208 bracelet with a better clasp.

I would not buy now unless you have to. In my view prices will be lower in a year or so as "The Great Correction" plays out.



Whenever anyone looks at such graphs, they should remember that they illustrate ASKING prices, not actual selling prices...and ones that need to be understood in context The section showing recent times actually inflates real market prices for willing buyers and sellers, believe it or not, as its data includes the asking prices of many desperate sellers chasing their money and trying to find a mug willing to pay last February's price.

H

[Omegamanic]

Great advice!

I’ve been looking at a DD myself for a while, but wondering what likely current pricing bands are.

[delays]

Fantastic advice - thank you. Will keep an eye on the market - any acquisition is likely to be a few months off yet.

[Haywood_Milton]

I've been reflecting on my advice above and wish to widen the target.

Everything I wrote still applies, but I would suggest that the OP looks at either :

(a) a late 18238 with as good a President 83858 bracelet on it as he can find (as I had first recommended) or

(b) a 118238, which must have the later 83208 bracelet fitted to be worth the premium which this will attract over (a).

Both models use the same 3155 calibre movement with double quick-set feature that is so useful. Any earlier model (1803, 18038 ) will not have this, while any later model doesn't really add any worthwhile feature.

The 18238 was sold until around the year 2000.

The 118238 was sold from around 2001 but the first couple of years' watches were fitted with the old 83858 bracelet. If you're paying for a 118238 then you want the full round of "upgrades" it offers : polished lugs, convex glass and revised bracelet.

I suppose one might finally note that early 118238s were correctly fitted with "old style" dials from the 18238 era (e.g. stick batons rather than luminous index batons). While indeed correct, such watches look a little odd and aren't the most desirable. Again, if you're going to pay for the later model you may as well have the newer dial as well as bracelet.

[Stonewood]

My opinion would be to opt for the newer hefty bracelet. For me there is something very special about feeling the weight of a solid gold watch so naturally the newer solid clasp likely adds a lot of weight vs the older pressed clasps.


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[daveyw]

Any thoughts on Dial colour?

[Haywood_Milton]

Any thoughts on Dial colour?

Just don't buy one with a diamond dial that you don't like, as you'll most likely lose money if you then sell or swap that anywhere.

If you buy a plain dial, it can always be swapped reasonably inexpensively outside the Rolex network, for perhaps no more than a couple of hundred pounds and less if your donor dial is good. There are lots of genuine Day-Date dials out there and I have a drawer full of them.

Champagne dials were always the classic as silver was to Mercedes cars, but these days people are much more open to (f not indeed looking for) funkier dial colours.

While Rolex is very tight on retaining access to parts today, this was not always the case. In the past I have helped out a number of main agents --- one of them massive --- when they needed to liquidate stock quickly and I could pick up great packages of Rolex dials, bracelet parts etc from them. There are also all those genuine dials which are liberated when your local tattoo monkey or florist has some Insta-Mick fit a custom pavé dial with a surface like a Victorian cobbled street.

Concentrate on the bracelet condition and other factors more than the dial.

[Corporalsparrow]

Why choose between white gold, rose gold and yellow gold when you can have all three?

Always loved a DD.

[Itsguy]

Throwing this one into the mix - the Oysterquartz day-date in yellow gold. This is a friends one, which he picked up at the weekend. Certainly a little different and off the beaten track… But where else are you going to find a solid gold integrated bracelet watch at this price, which is derived directly from a Genta design that actually came out before the Royal Oak (the Rolex ‘Texano’)? The other choices are the gold RO and the Nautilus, or along similar lines, the reissued Vacheron Constantin 222, which has similar proportions. Seen in that light, the OQ starts to look strangely like good value.

[Haywood_Milton]

Tridor Day-Date ( 18039 B / 18239 B ) is great if cheap, but they can be hard to sell as people paying for gold don't want the barber to think it's just a bicolour. The links are hellish expensive so make sure it's long enough. Note that Tridors should have white gold crowns, not yellow (often found incorrectly, whether out of ignorance or laziness by watchmakers) and that the dial has white metal fittings (coronet / batons).

Oysterquarts can be an expensive service nightmare and IMHO the OQ President bracelet struggles not to deteriorate under the forces applied upon it.

H

[delays]

The advice and insight are truly appreciated.

I had considered the OQ - love the design, as well as the contrarian, almost dichotomous, marriage of quartz and gold. But as HM says, the servicing / maintenance would be a worry bead.

For me, dial-wise, it’s trad champagne or that fantastic black - I think? - onyx stone dial, with minimal markers.

[eagletower]

Here’s mine. I didn’t want a bracelet . I believe the dial is called Rhodium but looks more like a silver to me .

I love the dial .

[Haywood_Milton]

That Day-Date on a strap is lovely, but the OP should be aware that yours is a model designed to be fitted with one and so has the span between the lugs filled with a permanent, horizontal spacer. Normal Day-Dates do not and cannot have this, so they always look like a bracelet model that has been retro-fitted with a strap.

[eagletower]

Haywood is it possible to buy that spacer ? ( I was originally looking at doing this before I bought this one) to make a normal Day Date look like it should been supplied with a strap?

[Haywood_Milton]

Haywood is it possible to buy that spacer ? ( I was originally looking at doing this before I bought this one) to make a normal Day Date look like it should been supplied with a strap?

I believe it is a permanent and cast part of the case, so you would have to look for third party accessories.

[jpjsavage]

I know it's not a Day-Date, but I love my early blue dialled OQ bought from here last year:

[Topcat30093]

Having had the good fortune to have owned several DD from 1803 - 118238.
I would, as Haywood mentioned go for the 118238 with the new heavier bracelet and concealed clasp.
If you have every experienced the older style bracelet and then the one fitted to the 118238, you will never go back.
Fantastic watch.
GLWYS

[eagletower]

I believe it is a permanent and cast part of the case, so you would have to look for third party accessories.

Thanks for clarifying that rules out a bracelet then if I ever do fancy a change.

[Idc0001]

I have after many years of collecting managed to get my dream pair of watches a 118228 YG with a green dial and a 118239 WG with a cherry dial both stunning but IMO there’s something much cooler about a WG daydate especially with a unusual dial

[dandanthewatchman]

I believe it is a permanent and cast part of the case, so you would have to look for third party accessories.

That is correct. I had this model bought on TZ. Unfortunately 36mm looked to small on me and would have loved to give it to my wife who didn’t see the appeal ! So was sold on. I checked at the time with Rolex UK whether a bracelet could be added. They said no






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