Description
A Day-Date in 18K yellow gold, reference 18038, dating to 1988. The champagne dial is set with diamond hour markers, and the fluted bezel and 36 mm case are the proportions the model has kept almost unchanged since 1956 — the reason a Day-Date from the eighties still reads as current rather than dated.
The 18038 sits at a useful point in the model’s history. It carries the automatic calibre 3055 with the double quickset, which lets both the day and the date be adjusted from the crown without moving the hands — the mechanism that made the reference practical to live with, and the improvement that separates it from the 1803 that came before. It also has a sapphire crystal rather than acrylic, so the dial is protected in a way earlier references were not.
The day wheel on this example is German. Rolex produced the Day-Date with the day spelled out in a range of languages, and the less common wheels are collected in their own right — a detail that matters to some buyers and is worth stating plainly to all of them. The watch is presently on a leather strap with a Rolex plated buckle rather than the gold President bracelet it would originally have worn. It has been little used and is running.
