Released in the year 1945 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Rolex Corporation, the Rolex Datejust is one of the best selling watches of Rolex. Initially, in order to show a gratitude towards the victory of Allied Force in the 2nd World War, Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex, thought of naming it as “The Victory”, but the named was later changed to the “Jubilee” and shortly thereafter, it was named as Datejust. Initially, people took it only as a variation to the Bubbleback that was released in the year 1940. Both these watches were known as the Ovettone for its domed back.
If you ask any guy about Rolex watches, many will immediately jump to talk about the Datejust. As one of the most important members of Rolex family, the Rolex Datejust has a wonderful combination of real history, versatile style, and quality watch making. This is a watch that can get everyone from the normal watch wearer to the craziest watch enthusiast excited. Here we are trying to give you an in depth look at where this watch comes from and why it’s considered among the greatest watches of all time.
Rolex and The Datejust:
The Datejust is one of the earliest models of Rolex that have survived the competition even today. This one provides the wearers with a perfect lens through which to examine why Rolex is the best known watch manufacturer on the globe. Rolex Datejust was the very first automatic wristwatch that came with an automatically changing day-date window. Now, this is a feature that everyone who wear watch today takes completely for granted, but in 1940’s the idea of automatic date changing window was game changing and this helped Rolex Datejust to be considered among one of the most wonderful best selling watches ever.
The Datejust Mechanism:
The Datejust was actually housed in an Oyster Case, one of the most important Rolex innovations. In the year 1926, the Oyster Case wristwatch was considered as the very first waterproof wristwatch that was produced serially. Furthermore, at that time it was the first fully integrated waterproof watch cases as well. Previously, waterproofing a watch case was considered a difficult task since it involved the process of an outer case being snapped over the main case of the wristwatch.
The Jubilee Bracelet:
The Rolex Datejust was also featured with the new bracelet – the Jubilee bracelet. Jubilee was first considered for the name of the watch itself, but later it ended up just on the fine-linked bracelet that we still have today on Rolex watches.
Rolex Datejust was initially available in yellow gold with a matching yellow gold Jubilee bracelet. It also had an open creamy white dial along with an applied gold buttons that helped marking the hours in a unique way. The Datejust also features a ‘roulette’ date window that uniquely shows the even days in red and odd days in black.
Another important thing about Rolex Datejust is that you cannot see the name ‘Datejust’ on its dial anywhere; instead you will see a “Rolex/Oyster Perpetual” signature in it.
