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Known to many as the watch of prestige, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 dazzles in green

- Ruckdee Chotjinda And Ashok Soman

The name Rolex is respected around the world for many good reasons. It is synonymous with quality, expertise and achievement in all possible realms of humanity. From exploration and adventure to leisurely strolls along the world’s finest beaches, there is always a suitable place to wear a Rolex. That said, we are not here today to sing the praises of the Rolex Professional series.

No, in this issue we are taking the opportunity to look at the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 – an unsung champion of both fine watchmaking and fine living. The Day-Date watch exemplifies the quintessential Rolex for a number of reasons, not least of which is its provenance. Launched in 1956, the watch has appeared on the wrists of some of the world’s most prominent individuals and visionaries.

Its distinctive features include an immediately recognisable display of the full day of the week (abbreviations being functional but hardly elegant) in an arc-shaped window at 12 o’clock; this is in addition to the more typical date window at 3 o’clock, but with the Cyclops lens to make things clearly legible. It may be hard to imagine this but when the watch was launched, it was the only one to spell out the day of the week in full. This illustrious fact might account for why it is only made in precious metals of yellow gold, white gold, Everose gold and 950 platinum. The ground-breaking status of the Day-Date and the ultra-exclusive precious metals used makes the watch an acknowledged symbol of prestige.