In 1945, to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of Wilsdorf & Davis, the company from which Rolex sprung, the Datejust model was launched.
A distinguishing feature of this model is its automatic movement with a rotor that is visible through an opening on the dial at 3 o’clock.
The first model was manufactured in yellow gold, except for a very small number in pink gold. Three years after its launch, the Rolesor version was introduced in steel and gold, and later just steel. The name Datejust, however, only started appearing on the dial in the early 1950s.
In 1954, in Basel, presented the Cyclops lens, which was Rolex Datejustset over the calendar to enlarge the date. While on the first models, the calendar would start moving a few hours before midnight, in 1955 a new mechanism made the change of date instant.
The Datejust models boast a COSC certification attesting to their accuracy as chronographs.
