The Day-Date was, at the time of its launch, somewhat of an exception for Rolex. The company had carved itself a name as the world’s foremost supplier of technical timepieces - most famously, pioneering waterproof cases and automatic movements - but it was much less recognised (ironically one might say, considering how different the situation is today) from the point of view of luxury timepieces. A first “breakthrough” of sorts came with the launch of the Datejust in 1947, a model based on previous “Big Bubble Back” pieces which blended the technical and “professional” ethos of Rolex with a more luxurious spirit, and indeed was cased in gold. Following the success of the Datejust, in 1957 the Day-Date was launched. It will go on to become one of the most easily recognisable luxury timepieces on the planet, worn by Head of States, entrepreneurs and artists among many others. In order to underline the exclusivity of the model, Rolex decided to produce the Day-Date exclusively in precious metals: such “ban” on steel Day-Date models in fact remains in effect to this very day.
As for every rule, however, there are exceptions to every role, including the “no steel Day-Date” one. As it turns out, an absurdly restricted number of prototype/scholar pieces have in fact been made in stainless steel. One example (movement no. 0004547) is portrayed in John Goldberger’s Rolex “bible” 1000 Superlative Rolex Watches. Two more were sold by Phillips in 2018 (no. 0005073) and in 2019 (no. DD411420). This fourth example (no. DD14749), previously unknown to the market, completes the set of the known stainless steel Day-Date. All these four prototype examples (and indeed, as one would expect from a Rolex prototype, they bear no serial nor case number) were originally gifted to Rolex’s watchmakers at the end of their career and they all have the same Roman numerals dial style.
In a world where rarity is considered one of the most important sides of a collectible timepiece, but also where sport’s timepieces are the in extreme demand given their undisputed wearability, this watch definitely deserves the “grail” status. A 4-pieces model would be considered beyond restricted for any brand, and that’s even more true for Rolex, whose output has historically been (relatively to other watchmaking brands, of course) less restricted. When to this rarity one couples the fact that owning this watch equals to owning something that should not even exist, that contradicts the company’s own rules and that at the same time is so eminently “slick”, modern and wearable, it is impossible to not realise that this is without a doubt one of the most interesting and important Day-Date watches made in the past century, and it could be arguably considered one of the most intellectually intriguing timepieces ever made.
