When it premiered in 1945, the Rolex Datejust was the first automatic, watertight wristwatch with chronometer-worthy rate quality. It embodied all of the innovations Rolex had developed for wristwatches up to that time, including a date display in a window at 3 o?clock, where the date switched automatically at midnight. To achieve this feat, intermediate wheels in the movement tightened a spring mechanism that advanced the date disk. The Datejust is named for this instantaneous ?just-in-time? date switching.
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust 41
Thanks to a movable finger in Rolex?s new automatic Caliber 3235, which powers the Oyster Perpetual Datejust 41 we’re reviewing here, the date can be reset manually, quickly, and whenever desired. Simply pull the crown out to its middle position, turn it counterclockwise, and the date advances smoothly and accurately. The ergonomic improvements that Rolex made to this caliber, in the interface for making manual adjustments, are very noticeable in practice. The winding stem engages securely in each position so the time can be reset precisely. The crown turns with buttery smoothness. The hands move with no play whatsoever, so the minutes hand can be positioned with its tip perfectly tangent to the desired index. The seconds hand can be stopped at the full minute easily because the screw-down crown?s stem is inserted into a long tube and the unscrewed crown is easy to grasp. Screwing the crown shut again is very secure, with a n...