Tracking down a 1981 Datejust

[andimac264]

This is my first post, so hello all.

I am looking for help in tracking down a Rolex Datejust which I bought at a dealer in Hong Kong in 1981. I'm on a mission to replace it, having lost it in a burglary in London, with the box and papers, about five years later.

The model in question had a yellow/champagne dial, sold gold hands (?), smooth bezel and was gold capped on stainless steel in, I believe, Rolesor. It came on a leather strap, with gilt buckle, and was 34/35/36mm in diameter. I've checked the usual places, so wonder if it was specific to the Hong Kong or Far East market as I haven't seen a similar example.

If I can get more details, I plan to approach the vintage Rolex dealers in HK to see if they can track one down, so having a model name or number is going to be a real help.

Thanks in advance and best wishes

andimac264

[CTech]

The most common gold capped Rolex watches are the 1550 and the later 15505, and these are both 34mm Date models, not Datejusts.

They were often sold on leather straps and there are usually a few for sale at any time from a variety of dealers around the world. This might be what you are looking for as I don't know of any gold capped Datejusts and earlier gold capped watches such as the 1024 did not have a date.

Here's a 15505 for sale from European Watch Company in Boston, Massachusetts:

[andimac264]

That's the one....thank you so much for identifying it. What are the differences between the 1550 and 15505?

[CTech]

The differences are mainly the movement used as the watch cases, crystals, etc. appear identical to me.

The 1550 was made from about 1970 to about 1979 and it has the 1570 date movement (19800 beats per hour), whereas the 15505 was made from about 1980 onward and has the updated 3035 movement (28800 beats per hour).

So, in principle, the 15505 should have slightly more accurate time keeping, but both are good movements and you might not see any significant difference in everyday use. The second hand will be noticeably smoother with the 15505 compared to a slight more jerky movement with the 1550.

Probably the biggest difference on the used market is that you will likely find a greater choice of dial designs available for the 1550 whereas the 15505 had a more limited choice, possibly just silver or champagne with the standard 1980s design stick indices.

There are always some exceptions and you might find some 15505 watches with dial designs that are unusual, but there is no way of knowing if they left the factory like that, if the dealer changed the dial or if the dial has been replaced at a later service, possibly with a non-authentic dial.

[andimac264]

Good to know these details, thanks again.