The History of the Rolex Datejust | Bob's Watches

First introduced in 1945 as a means to commemorate the company’s 40th anniversary, the Datejust is one of Rolex’s oldest lines of watches, and still remains in production today. While a date display has become completely standard on most contemporary timepieces, the Rolex Datejust was the world’s very first self-winding wristwatch to feature a date window that would automatically change over at midnight. Although its functionality may now seem somewhat commonplace, it was the Datejust that set the standard for how a date complication on a wristwatch should function. The Datejust first made its appearance as the reference 4467; however, it was not until the 1950s that the “Datejust” name actually started to be used on the dial. By the late 50s, Rolex had introduced their Caliber 1560 movement, which would usher in a new generation in the form of the reference 1600 series. By this point, the basic appearance of the Datejust was set. Its name had become a permanent fixture on the dial, and other features such as the hands, bezel, hour markers, and crystal with cyclops magnification lens took forms that are still very much present on the watches that Rolex manufactures today. The next major update to the Datejust came during the late 1970s, when Rolex introduced their Caliber 3035 movement. The new generation of Datejust watches added the ‘quickset’ date feature, which enabled users to independently adjust the date display from the hands displaying the time. Within this genera