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RolexDay-Date 36

The Day-Date of 1956 was the first wristwatch to spell out the day of the week, and it has only ever been made in gold or platinum. This collection is the 36 mm original; the library holds 681 references of it.

Rolex Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold - Baguette / White - Roman / President

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold - Baguette / White - Roman / President

128398TBR-0026 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Diamonds / Oyster / Champagne Computer

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Diamonds / Oyster / Champagne Computer

118348-0152 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 18026

Rolex

Day-Date 18026

18026 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Everose Gold - Baguette / Blue-Green - Baguette / President

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Everose Gold - Baguette / Blue-Green - Baguette / President

128395TBR-0032 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Domed / Oyster / Cognac

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Domed / Oyster / Cognac

118208-0343 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Platinum Diamonds / President / Silver Diamond Emerald

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Platinum Diamonds / President / Silver Diamond Emerald

118346-0084 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 White Gold - Diamond / Blue Ombré - Roman / President

Rolex

Day-Date 36 White Gold - Diamond / Blue Ombré - Roman / President

128349RBR-0047 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Domed / President / Champagne Roman

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Domed / President / Champagne Roman

118208-0326 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Diamonds / President Diamonds / Black Diamond

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Yellow Gold Diamonds / President Diamonds / Black Diamond

118388-0021 · 36 mm

Rolex Day-Date 36 Platinum Domed / President / Black MOP

Rolex

Day-Date 36 Platinum Domed / President / Black MOP

118206-0043 · 36 mm

About the Rolex Day-Date 36

The day window at 12 o'clock and the date at 3 are the whole idea, and the semi-circular President bracelet was created for it in the same year. The nickname followed the wearers: Lyndon Johnson wore one in office, and "President" stuck to the watch itself. Rolex has never offered it in steel, which is why every case here is yellow gold (312 references), Everose gold (145), white gold (143) or platinum (81).

The movements date the generations. Early references carried the 1556 and the 3055, the latter bringing quickset date and a sapphire crystal in 1977. The caliber 3155, with a double quickset for both day and date, arrived in 1988 and powers 445 of the 681 watches here, most of them the six-digit 118xxx references. In 2019 the 36 mm case received the caliber 3255, the 70-hour movement introduced on the Day-Date 40 four years earlier; it sits in 211 references. What changed between those movement families is set out in the 3135-to-3235 piece, since the 3255 shares that architecture.

The 44 base references branch chiefly on bezel and dial. The largest families are the diamond-set 118388 and 118348 and the fluted 118238 and 118208, each with 44 to 60 variants, and the dial list is the longest in the Rolex catalogue: white, black, silver, blue, champagne and green each appear more than fifty times, and the stone dials and Roman, Arabic and diamond indices run underneath them.

The Day-Date 40 is the larger companion since 2015, and the Day-Date II was the 41 mm it replaced.

All models in this collection681