Rolex Datejust

Reference 1600 is the smooth-bezel chapter of the Datejust story, the more restrained sibling of the fluted 1601 that ran alongside it through the long calibre 1575 years of the late 1960s and 1970s. Where the 1601 plays up the dressier side of the Datejust, the 1600 leans a touch sportier, a steel everyday Rolex stripped of ornament. The calibre 1575 inside was the workhorse of its generation, the movement that carried the Datejust through nearly two decades of daily service on wrists around the world.

The silver dial is plainly finished, a clean ground for the applied indices and matching hands. The date at three sits under the cyclops on the acrylic crystal. A signed screw-down crown anchors the right flank, and the watch comes on its Jubilee bracelet with a folding deployant clasp.

The indices have taken on a light patina, the gentle mellowing that decades on the wrist bring to a tritium-era Datejust. The Jubilee bracelet shows minor stretch across its five-link rows, the natural give of a bracelet that has been worn. The original Rolex box is included.