Datejust 31 Rose Gold / Fluted / Butterfly / Oyster

About This Watch

The Rolex Datejust 31 occupies a distinguished place in the brand’s legacy, embodying the timeless elegance that has defined the collection since its introduction in 1945. This particular iteration, with its rose gold case and fluted bezel, merges classic design with refined sophistication. The dial, a luminous white mother-of-pearl surface, catches light with a subtle iridescence, its gloss finish and absence of indexes emphasizing a minimalist yet deliberate aesthetic. Stick hands trace the hours with precision, their simplicity allowing the dial’s natural beauty to take center stage. The Oyster case, paired with a sapphire crystal and a closed case back, ensures durability without compromising the watch’s understated presence. At its core, the Datejust 31 is powered by Rolex’s in-house automatic movement 2236, a chronometer-certified mechanism featuring a Parachrom balance spring for exceptional accuracy and resilience.

In Context

At 31 mm it is small by current standards, in the range most wristwatches occupied before cases began growing through the 1990s. The case back is closed, so the movement stays out of sight, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. 100 m is genuine swimming resistance — more than the shape of this watch suggests it would need.

The movement winds itself from the motion of your wrist. 55 hours of reserve is enough to set it down on Friday evening and find it still running on Monday. At 28,800 vph the seconds hand advances 8 times a second.

278275-0020 is one of 25 executions of the 278275 base reference. Underneath they are the same watch; what separates this one is a white gloss dial and a rose gold case.

Rolex

White · Rose Gold

278275-0009 · 31 mm

Rolex

Brown · Rose Gold

278275-0010 · 31 mm

Rolex

White · Rose Gold

278275-0016 · 31 mm

Rolex

Brown · Rose Gold

278275-0017 · 31 mm

Rolex

White · Rose Gold

278275-0018 · 31 mm

Rolex

White · Rose Gold

278275-0019 · 31 mm

Rolex

White · Rose Gold

278275-0021 · 31 mm

Rolex

Brown · Rose Gold

278275-0024 · 31 mm

+ 16 more variants in this family.

The 2236 is the Rolex movement inside more watches in this library than any other: 907, in the 28 mm Lady-Datejust and the 31 mm Datejust 31. It was the first Rolex caliber with a silicon hairspring. Introduced in 2014 in the Pearlmaster 34, it is a 20 mm automatic with a date, 31 jewels, a 55-hour reserve and a beat of 28,800 vph, certified by the COSC and then tested again by Rolex after casing to the Superlative Chronometer tolerance of two seconds a day. Its distinction is the Syloxi hairspring: silicon, immune to magnetism, etched to a patented geometry that keeps the spring concentric in every position, and paired with Paraflex shock absorbers. The larger Rolex calibers kept the Parachrom alloy spring; Syloxi did not reach a men's movement until the 7140 of 2023. The [2236 piece](/blog/the-rolex-2236-the-most-common-movement-in-this-library) sets out that history. In the library it powers 488 [Datejust 31](/brands/rolex/datejust-31) references, the seven-digit 2782xx generation of 2020, 399 [Lady-Datejusts](/brands/rolex/lady-datejust) of the 2791xx generation of 2015, 15 [Pearlmasters](/brands/rolex/pearlmaster) and 5 [Yacht-Master 37s](/brands/rolex/yacht-master). The [2235](/calibers/rolex-2235) is the 48-hour movement it replaced, the [2232](/calibers/rolex-2232) its no-date sibling for the Oyster Perpetual, and the [3235](/calibers/rolex-3235) its counterpart in the 36 mm and 41 mm cases.

906 other watches in the library run the Rolex 2236.

Rolex

Lady-Datejust 28 Rolesor Everose Diamond / Oyster / MOP

279381RBR-0014 · 28 mm

Rolex

Lady-Datejust 28 Rolesor Rose Diamond / Jubilee / MOP

279381rbr-0013 · 28 mm

Rolex

Lady-Datejust 28 Rolesor Yellow Domed / Oyster / MOP

279163-0014 · 28 mm

Rolex

Datejust 31 Stainless Steel / Yellow Gold / Diamond / Black MOP / Oyster

278383RBR-0023 · 31 mm