An automatic stainless steel and eighteen carat gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust reference 16018 model. This example has a very special, and a very rare birch burled wood dial that featured in only two Rolex models; The Day Date and this; the Datejust. This is an actual piece of hand selected milled piece of stunning burled wood featuring solid gold applied classic baton markers. These dials were all made by Rolex at the beginning of the 1970's, '80's and '90's and very limited numbers. The dial is no longer in production, and making this a very rare and collectible dial! They are much more common to find in a Day Date model than the Datejust. But, not having the day of the week window at the top of the dial allows for more of this fabulous wood!
These wood dials are non-luminous. Although the dial is in fact stamped "T Swiss T", no tritium was applied to the hour markers. This was very common place for stone and wood dials alike from this time in Rolex's history. The original Rolex eighteen carat yellow old baton hands are filled with Tritium through the center of the hands. The lume is in good condition and has toned into a beautiful coffee colour.
The watch is powered by a Rolex, Swiss made, thirty-one jewel automatic calibre 3135 movement that powered the majority of all Rolex models since its launch in 1988, from the Datejust to the Submariner. This model features the more ergonomic 'Quick Set' date function, and the newly designed smaller profile case, all of which were introduced in the 1970's. This case does not have the spring bar holes exposed from the side, a 'no holes' case, which was still not common place on the steel Datejust cases from this period.
The watch was made circa 1988 with serial number R,697,XXX. Now over thirty seven years old, the watch is officially 'vintage'! The watch is in superb original condition, very lightly polished, with signs of only very light wear. All the hallmarks are still visible on the back side of the case and show no signs of seeing a polishing wheel.
These watches are exceptionally hard to find, let alone in this condition. If the desire is there for something subtle, but beautiful, this watch very much ticks the boxes. These dials. Very rare and quite special in the iconic Datejust case, this is a watch that will only become in greater demand as time passes! This offers the opportunity own one of the most beautiful Datejust models made by Rolex.
The watch comes with a Foundwell one year warranty against mechanical failure. The paperwork is not present, and the service history of the watch is unknown.
