Day Date Mystery-Help

[Richard Carver]

Originally Posted by miamiclay

I can’t tell for certain from the OP pics - Are those 1964-spec cigarette boat hands? Are they rose gold? Installed later, or is ‘62-‘64 simply within the inevitable date margin of error?

I saw a RG DD on C24 with only one lug hole drilled. I’d guess not born that way

They are CB hands, could be from a service, can't tell the color but the crown is yellow gold. Rose crowns are rare. :)

[motoikkyu]

Bubblebacks, both 18k and stainless, have one lug drilled, so this is a Rolex thing, but I agree that I've never seen an 1803 with drilled lug holes, either unilateral or bilateral. I guess if you have always had drilled-lug stainless oyster cases, you might ask your watchmaker to give you some holes to make band swaps easier or less traumatic. As for the appearance of the webbing below the bezel, that may have happened during polishing. It's very hard to resist polishing 18k gold watches because gold polishes so easily, and a few I've handled have had similar appearance post-polish. Also, 18k DateJust has webbing between lugs, at least 1601 does.