REVOLUTION_International_Vol 54

Left
The Day-Date 36
reference 1803
in white gold
with white gold
bracelet, baguette
and brilliant-cut
diamond markers
and a rare gradated
green dial called
“Augusta Green”.
These watches with
the caliber 1556
came with a rare
2.75Hz running
escapement speed.
Above
The reference 6612
shown here bears a
smooth bezel which
differs from Rolex’s
fluted bezels of the
1803 onwards. It
also offers a very
unique bracelet and
was developed for
the Arabic market.
THE PRECIOUS WATCH
Rolex unveiled the Day-Date at Baselworld in 1956. The
new watch featured Rolex’s groundbreaking Datejust
technology that was supplemented by the addition of a day
window. From the get go, the Day-Date was manufactured
in precious metals only, including yellow, white and pink
gold and platinum. Over the years a small number of Day-
Dates in steel have appeared and we presume they were
either for testing movements or for watchmakers to work on,
much like the hyper-rare brass training models that we have
seen occasionally crop up. The first references available
were the 6510 and 6511, and then in 1957 the second series
came in references 6611 (with a coin edge bezel), 6612 (with
smooth bezel) and 6613 that was made in platinum in very
small numbers. Both series one and two were monoblocco
cases, where the midcase and bezel were crafted from a
single piece of metal, unlike later watches where the bezel
was a separate part that was used to keep the crystal in place.
In 1960 the iconic reference 1803 was launched which was
again available in yellow, white and pink gold as well as the
reference 1804 in platinum. Whilst there had been some
diamond setting on the earlier models, it was with the 1800
series that Rolex really began to experiment and push
the boundaries.
STARTER STONES
From the early days, the Day-Date was a watch that was
destined to be the most luxurious member of the Rolex clan.
I have a copy of a price list from 1965, which lists some of
the main pieces from the collection. A GMT-Master on
steel bracelet cost CHF2,910. The platinum Day-Date
on bracelet with diamond hour markers had a list price of
CHF22,000. That was a lot of money in the mid-60s and
would have been the preserve of the ultra high net worth
buyer of the time.
One of the earliest examples of diamond use on the
Day-Date is the reference 6611 in white gold. As early as
1958 this watch was fitted with baguette and brilliant cut
diamonds. A familiar setting pattern from Rolex, that we
saw in examples such as this in the late ’50s up until present
day, is a baguette diamond at six o’clock and nine o’clock
and then the remaining hours with brilliant-cut diamonds.
There was no space for a stone at twelve or three o’clock,
due to the day and date apertures on the dial and so these
dials are known as “eight plus two”. There were also dials
without the baguette-cut diamonds and just eight brilliantcut
stones as seen on this 6612 also from 1958. The “eight
plus two” configuration continued to be the most common
setting throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
VINTAGE 149