1030 — Rolex's first fully in-house centre-rotor automatic

In brief

Until the 1030, Rolex's automatics rested on architecture the firm had not drawn up on its own. This was the first centre-rotor calibre designed and produced entirely inside the manufacture, and the brand's technical history turns on it.

Short history

Earlier Rolex automatics were built on work shared with Aegler, the movement maker tied to the brand for most of its history. The 1030 introduced a centre-rotor layout of Rolex's own, one the company spent the following two decades refining until it arrived at the 1560 and the 1570. It went into some of the first automatic sports references — the Explorer ref. 6610 of the late 1950s among them — at the point when Rolex was extending the automatic across the whole catalogue.

Watches that used it

• Rolex Explorer (ref. 6610)
• Other Rolex automatic references of the late 1950s