Datejust

The Datejust was presented in 1945, the fortieth anniversary of Rolex's founding, with reference 4467: a watch in 18-carat yellow gold that, according to the brand's own historical accounts, was the first automatically wound, chronometer-certified wristwatch to show the date in a window on the dial. For the occasion Rolex also introduced the Jubilee bracelet, a five-link bracelet designed specifically to celebrate the anniversary and ever since lastingly associated with this line.

In 1953 Rolex introduced the Cyclops lens, a small magnifying element fitted to the crystal above the date window, initially on the Datejust and later extended to other models in the range such as the GMT-Master and the Day-Date from the mid-1950s onward. A widespread story, not directly confirmed by Rolex, attributes the idea to a suggestion from Hans Wilsdorf's wife, who is said to have found the date difficult to read without magnification; a second mechanical innovation came instead in 1955, with the introduction of the instantaneous midnight date change, replacing the previous gradual change.

In the following decades the Datejust became the most produced and most recognisable model in the Rolex catalogue, available in countless combinations of case, dial, bezel (smooth or fluted) and bracelet, equally suited to a formal setting or everyday use. The most recent evolution saw, in 2009, the introduction of the 41 mm Datejust II and, in 2016, the debut of the Datejust 41 with the new Calibre 3235 and a power reserve of around 70 hours; in the same period the women's version, the Lady-Datejust, moved from its historic 26 mm diameter to 28 mm with Calibre 2236.