Authenticate Rolex Datejust
The maison's everyday watch, and the reference where the cyclops does the work.
Introduced 1945Geneva4 references
The Datejust's cyclops is the model's signature and the easiest read on it. The lens magnifies 2.5 times, and on a genuine watch the date fills the aperture, centred, with the digits reaching the edges. Almost every counterfeit under-magnifies, leaving a small date floating in the middle — and this is visible in any straight-on photograph.
The date should also snap. On a genuine modern Datejust the date changes instantaneously at midnight rather than creeping over several minutes. A crawling date change is a movement failure that no amount of cosmetic work covers.
Fluted bezels are machined, and their flutes are even in width and depth with sharp peaks. A soft, shallow or unevenly spaced fluting is a manufacturing failure. Jubilee bracelets have five-piece links that articulate smoothly with no rattle, and the end links meet the case with no gap.
Dial variety on the Datejust is enormous and genuine, which is why establishing that a particular dial belongs to a particular reference matters. Aftermarket dials and aftermarket diamond markers are common, are not counterfeits, and materially reduce the watch's value.
126234 · 126300 · 126334 · 116234
Establish which of these you are holding before judging it. A genuine piece read against another reference's rules will look wrong when it is not.
What a Datejust does on the secondary market
Enormous supply, so the Datejust is priced on condition and configuration rather than scarcity. Two-tone and precious-metal references, original dials and box-and-papers sets set the top of the range; refinished dials and polished cases the bottom.
An orientation for honest, unrestored condition — never an appraisal, and never a quotation.
Questions we are asked
- How much should a Rolex date magnify?
- Two and a half times. The date should fill the cyclops window, centred, with the digits reaching the edges of the aperture. A small date floating in the middle indicates a counterfeit lens.
Lovenhall WatchRead the watch itself
The checks tell you how it was made. The instrument tells you what it appears to be, and roughly what its kind fetches.