Rolex Datejust Ref. 5030 - 'Ovettone' w/ 'Roulette' Date

Hard to believe - but the Datejust has been around since 1945. It is far older than its bigger and attention-hogging Submariner brethren. The Datejust was Rolex’s idea of the perfect everyday watch. The robustness of the Oyster case, combined with the elegance of an Oyster Perpetual. The ‘4 digit’ series of Datejust are particularly attractive for their pie-pan dials which offer a layer of three-dimensionality to the dials that went away with the advent of quickset date and 5-digit Datejusts. 

While the 16xx series of Datejusts are plentiful, coming across the earlier references is actually uncommon, as Rolex simply was not making as many watches in the 40s and 50s as they later would. So its a special day when we are able to find not only an early Datejust, but one in the condition like the piece that we have here....

This is a Reference 5030, and despite being from the late 1940s, this piece has many of the characteristic, and yes, iconic, features that the Datejusts of today still have, but with some subtle differences that are unique to Rolexes from this era: The 'roulette' date disk has alternating red and black numerals, and the aperture window is beautifully framed. The applied indices are of the 'arrowhead' style and are complimented by a matching 'alpha'-style handset. And last but not least, the case itself has a few minor differences, namely the caseback carrying over some of the 'bubble-back' shape of even older Rolex models.

This particular example dates to circa 1948 and happens to be in excellent overall condition. The case shows signs of having been lightly previously polished, while remaining nice and symmetrical and showing normal signs of wear throughout. The smooth polished yellow gold bezel is in matching condition. The dial inside is beautiful. Gloss black in color, it shows light signs of aging resulting in a uniform 'starry' patina and retains fully-intact luminous plots. The correct 'alpha' handset matches beautifully. The crown is a slightly later unit and features both the Brevet 'cross' and Rolex Coronet signatures.

We cannot overstate how special and hard to come by these are, and we are thrilled to be able to offer this piece on the site.