Rolex Datejust 41 126300

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The storyWhy this reference matters

In 1945 Rolex turned forty and gave itself the Datejust: the first self-winding wrist chronometer to show the date in a window on the dial. The Jubilee bracelet, five links, was created for that launch and has been in production ever since without a break. What now feels like the most ordinary thing in the world — turning your wrist to find out what day it is — began exactly there, in an Oyster case with a fluted bezel.

Getting to 41 mm took two attempts. The first was the Datejust II of 2009, which had too much case and too much bezel everywhere and never quite won anyone over. The second, the Datejust 41, arrived in 2016 in gold versions and in 2017 in full steel as this reference 126300: same diameter, thinner and sharper lugs, a narrower bezel and a profile that sits far better on the wrist.

Inside runs the calibre 3235, the engine with the Chronergy escapement that Rolex introduced to relieve the 3135 after twenty years of service. Seventy hours of reserve, instantaneous date change at midnight, a paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring and certified accuracy of -2/+2 seconds a day once cased. The house classic became, on the inside, one of its most modern watches.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

The bezel decides. The 126300 has a smooth, domed Oystersteel bezel; if it is fluted, you are looking at a 126334 with a white gold bezel, or at a Rolesor version in yellow gold or Everose, not at this reference. On the Datejust 41 a fluted bezel is always gold, never steel: if somebody shows you a fluted one and swears it is steel, something is off.

Over the date sits the Cyclops lens, bonded to the sapphire crystal. If the number is not magnified, either the crystal is not original or the watch is not a Datejust at all. The calibre is the 3235, with hacking seconds and quickset date, and this particular -0001 carries a bright blue sunray dial on a three-link Oyster bracelet with an Oysterclasp and 5 mm Easylink.

Watch out for odd combinations: the Datejust has more dial variants than anything else in the catalogue, and plenty of pieces circulate with dials or diamond bezels fitted outside the factory. Setting that Rolex did not sign gives itself away in the uneven seating of the stones, and it guts the value of the watch.

CollectingWhat collectors check

This is the Rolex most people buy to wear every day, and for the same reason it is the one that most often turns up polished to the bone. Look at the edge of the lugs: on the 126300 they are crisp, with the bevel well defined. If they are rounded and shine like a spoon, the watch has seen rather more of the polisher than it should have.

The Cyclops is a good tell for replaced crystals: it should sit centred over the window to the millimetre, with a clean edge and no adhesive residue. Check too that the date snaps over at midnight and that the Easylink in the clasp works, because it is the part that suffers most over the years.

And make your mind up early between Oyster and Jubilee: they change the character of the watch more than the colour of the dial does. The Jubilee dresses it up, the Oyster toughens it. Both are factory options on this reference, so neither should set off any alarms.

Common questionsWhat people ask us about this reference

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Close relativesThe ones it gets confused with