A fine and expensive timepiece.

The Rolex 41 Datejust 16300

A year or so ago I wrote in disgust about my abandonment of Patek Philippe wristwatches and their replacement with a dirt cheap Seiko Solar. That Seiko is recommended every bit as much today as is my warning to steer away from Pateks. These may be the most elegant and desired of watches but they are like Jaguar cars of old. You need two. One on your wrist and the other in for service. In fact, it looks like you need two service men, in case one breaks down, and you can bet they are nowhere to be found in the US of A. It’s off to Geneva and many months of waiting, during which time your inquiries are disregarded.

So with the proceeds of the Nautilus and the Golden Ellipse burning a hole in my pocket, it was just a question of waiting for the wounds to heal after decades of association with the marque. The healing time was used for some serious research into alternatives.

And when the withdrawal symptoms faded with the coming of the new year I looked to a brand I though would never grace (darken?) my wrist, Rolex.

Frankly, all that bling and association with guys named Tony left me cold. Not my thing. While I do believe a good whacking beats our legal system as often as not, it’s not an activity with which I want to be associated.

…. guys named Tony….

But there are Rolexes and there are Rolexes as a glance at their extensive offerings confirms. As I wanted a classic, simple watch my attention fell on the Datejust, first offered in 1945 and the first watch with a date display. After a while Rolex added the ‘cyclops’ date magnifier, 2.5x unlike the 1.5x found elsewhere, and that was a must for these aging eyes. The look is simple, almost severe, ‘no gold’ options abound and you can even side step that awful machined bezel which screams ‘look at me’. So I went for a plain steel model with a smooth bezel and made sure it came with the gorgeous Jubilee bracelet – the one with the three rows of fine, polished links in the center in contrast to the single link of the clunkier Oyster alternative – and plunked down a (small) percentage of the proceeds from the Pateks. This is the Datejust 41 model, their latest, and obsoletes the thicker and clunkier Datejust II, which is more reminiscent of the fat onions of old. Roman numerals? You bet. An essential option on my timepieces. The trade-off is that the Roman numerals dial has no luminosity. If that is a desired feature, you have to go with the stick hour markers and stick luminous hands.

While Rolex claims a 41mm bezel diameter, that is a lie. It’s actually 40.1mm:

Little lies.

No matter. It looks just right on my 7 3/4″ circumference wrist and more discreet than some of the modern monsters from the competition.

And while silver hands on a white background suggest poor readability, tilt the wrist a few degrees and the contrast is striking, courtesy of the facets on the hands:

No lack of contrast

The watch can be ‘hacked’, meaning the second hand can be stopped for precise alignment with Apple Time, and my early readings suggest it is losing 1.0 seconds a day. Compare that with the quartz magic of the Seiko which gains 2 seconds …. a month! The Rolex is automatic and the power reserve a generous 70 hours. The movement is made in house, unlike with most Swiss brands who buy in movements from mass market makers. Stated differently, your are buying a packaging and marketing exercise with those, not a statement of mechanical originality. You want your Porsche 911 with a Chevy motor?

A great deal of thought has gone into the making of this timepiece. Look at the perfect integration of that gorgeous bracelet with the lugs and body:

Perfect integration of band and lugs

And the attention is not all on the surface, as this detail of the clasp’s design and finish discloses:

Clasp detail

So for those seeking a mechanical watch which will never really be an heirloom – in the sense of a Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet – but which nevertheless boasts high standards of design and execution, and if a 2 seconds a day accuracy is acceptable, add the Rolex Datejust to your list. Waterproofing is good to 100 meters below the surface.

If you want a Rolex with a stopwatch function, you should look at the Daytona model. This will run you 2 to 3 times as much as the Datejust, above, and be prepared to add 50-70% to prices on the Rolex website for any model. No jeweler will offer you those prices. Excuses will include “supply chain”, “sunken delivery ship”, “the European war”, “the pandemic”, “inflation”, and so on.

Provenance? Churchill was gifted #100,000, though like a true Victorian he preferred his Breguet pocket watch. Ike got #150,000 and the watch even made an appearance on the cover of Life magazine along with its distinguished wearer, in 1952. Elvis got a free one, but the number is unknown and he probably bought a few dozen out of his own pocket to give his closest hangers on. The Datejust has a distinguished history and has been around almost 80 years, so the kinks will have been well and truly ironed out by now. Plus the extensive USA dealer and servicing network means it’s not off to the land of the Gnomes of Zurich (Nazi and Russkie bankers to you) every time something goes wrong. This is a Swiss product after all and its reliability is most likely like that of a Mercedes. Stated differently, it’s no Toyota/Seiko.

Purchase the watch new from an authorized US dealer and it comes with a five year factory warranty.

For an interesting review of the history of the magnificent Jubilee bracelet, click here.

Update May 18, 2022 – after one month of operation:

The Datejust has lost 23 seconds in 30 days at a constant rate. This is comfortably inside the stated +/- 2 seconds a day specification. When resetting the date every two months for short months I will set the watch 23 seconds fast for minimum mean error across a two month period.

The bracelet has a tool less length adjustment feature allowing a 5mm change in length by clipping or unclipping one link inside the clasp. I find this to be most useful. My wrist shrinks during the day so I shorten the bracelet around noon for a perfect fit at all times. Very handy.

Update June 30, 2022 – after 72 days of operation:

July 1st will be the first time I have had to reset the date at which point I will also “hack“ the second hand to get the lowest error rate through the next reset, which will be on October 1st. For those 72 days, the average daily error rate sees the Datejust running just 0.4 seconds slow per day. That is excellent for a purely mechanical device.