Review: Oyster Perpetual No Date 116000

[roamer]

I bought this watch in late November and was immediately thrilled with it, but decided to hold off on doing a review for a few weeks. Let that new watch smell wear off and see if the euphoria of a new purchase (and my first Rolex) wore off.

So, six weeks later let's take a look at this watch.

Model and Style number: 116000bkwao

Pros:
The appearance is a little different from the 'standard' Rolex watches you see. If you are not a fan of wearing the exact same thing that everyone else has you'll enjoy that. It does have the standard Oyster bracelet and winding crown which are both excellent. Obviously I am not a fan of having the same thing as everyone else since I put this as a pro instead of a con.
The dial. Black with Arabic numbers at 3-6-9. Also has Arabic "minute" markers at 05-10-20-25-35-40-50-55. Instead of the usual text layout of "Oyster Perpetual" and "Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified" they are in a concentric ring inside the numbers on the dial with concentric circles from that ring to the center. This is simply an appearance preference but I like it.
The Crown. The Rolex crown is applied to the dial at the 12 position instead of painted on. I think it adds a nice classy look to the more non-traditional dial.
All of that is appearance and is strictly a matter of opinion. I guess it would be pretty easy to move each of those pros to the cons category if that particular style doesn't appeal to you. That said, on to the nuts and bolts.
Accuracy. I can't say enough about the accuracy of this watch. I set the watch to the Atomic Clock the day I got it. For the first three nights I had it I laid the watch on my dresser face up when going to bed. Each day it gained 1 second. Well within the standard and enough to make anyone happy. However, when I bought the watch the AD threw in a free winder. From the fourth night on I put the watch in the winder. I noticed that it didn't appear to gain or lose any time so I reset the watch to the Atomic Clock on December 2nd. As of this writing (10 January) the watch has not gained or lost one single second (I did have to reset for the leap second on the 1st). Read that again, in fact, let me put it in bold: this watch has kept PERFECT time for 39 days without gaining or losing 1 second. That is enough of a pro to pretty much blow any con out of the water.
I don't know what caliber this watch has and if someone does please let me know.

Cons:
No date. The Cyclops would definitely distract from the dial appearance but if you are the kind of person that has to have a date on your watch you will never be happy with this no matter how good of time it keeps.
Not easily recognizable as a Rolex. If you like to have your watch recognized this probably isn't the watch for you. It is a different dial than Rolex has made in the past and doesn't jump out at you the way a Sub, Daytona or GMT would and scream "I AM A ROLEX."
The dial will not appeal to everyone.
Lume. Lume on the hands and the 3-6-9..or so they say. It is very weak. You MUST charge it to get any lume at all. It will not charge on normal light so that means you have to basically hold or place the the watch right up to a light source to charge it. It seems to hold the charge about as well as any other Rolex model (from what I've read) but realistically, who is going to hold their watch up to a light for 30 minutes before they go out into the dark? The lume is definitely my biggest gripe with the watch.

Overall:
Six weeks later and I couldn't be happier with this watch. The cons are easily outweighed by the pros and since the style of the dial appeals to me I am still thrilled with this watch. I can strongly recommend this watch to anyone that finds it aesthetically pleasing because the accuracy cannot be beaten.

Here are a couple of poor pictures I took right after I got it in November.

[reddog]

Originally Posted by roamer

I bought this watch in late November and was immediately thrilled with it, but decided to hold off on doing a review for a few weeks. Let that new watch smell wear off and see if the euphoria of a new purchase (and my first Rolex) wore off.

So, six weeks later let's take a look at this watch.

Model and Style number: 116000bkwao

Pros:
The appearance is a little different from the 'standard' Rolex watches you see. If you are not a fan of wearing the exact same thing that everyone else has you'll enjoy that. It does have the standard Oyster bracelet and winding crown which are both excellent. Obviously I am not a fan of having the same thing as everyone else since I put this as a pro instead of a con.
The dial. Black with Arabic numbers at 3-6-9. Also has Arabic "minute" markers at 05-10-20-25-35-40-50-55. Instead of the usual text layout of "Oyster Perpetual" and "Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified" they are in a concentric ring inside the numbers on the dial with concentric circles from that ring to the center. This is simply an appearance preference but I like it.
The Crown. The Rolex crown is applied to the dial at the 12 position instead of painted on. I think it adds a nice classy look to the more non-traditional dial.
All of that is appearance and is strictly a matter of opinion. I guess it would be pretty easy to move each of those pros to the cons category if that particular style doesn't appeal to you. That said, on to the nuts and bolts.
Accuracy. I can't say enough about the accuracy of this watch. I set the watch to the Atomic Clock the day I got it. For the first three nights I had it I laid the watch on my dresser face up when going to bed. Each day it gained 1 second. Well within the standard and enough to make anyone happy. However, when I bought the watch the AD threw in a free winder. From the fourth night on I put the watch in the winder. I noticed that it didn't appear to gain or lose any time so I reset the watch to the Atomic Clock on December 2nd. As of this writing (10 January) the watch has not gained or lost one single second (I did have to reset for the leap second on the 1st). Read that again, in fact, let me put it in bold: this watch has kept PERFECT time for 39 days without gaining or losing 1 second. That is enough of a pro to pretty much blow any con out of the water.
I don't know what caliber this watch has and if someone does please let me know.

Cons:
No date. The Cyclops would definitely distract from the dial appearance but if you are the kind of person that has to have a date on your watch you will never be happy with this no matter how good of time it keeps.
Not easily recognizable as a Rolex. If you like to have your watch recognized this probably isn't the watch for you. It is a different dial than Rolex has made in the past and doesn't jump out at you the way a Sub, Daytona or GMT would and scream "I AM A ROLEX."
The dial will not appeal to everyone.
Lume. Lume on the hands and the 3-6-9..or so they say. It is very weak. You MUST charge it to get any lume at all. It will not charge on normal light so that means you have to basically hold or place the the watch right up to a light source to charge it. It seems to hold the charge about as well as any other Rolex model (from what I've read) but realistically, who is going to hold their watch up to a light for 30 minutes before they go out into the dark? The lume is definitely my biggest gripe with the watch.

Overall:
Six weeks later and I couldn't be happier with this watch. The cons are easily outweighed by the pros and since the style of the dial appeals to me I am still thrilled with this watch. I can strongly recommend this watch to anyone that finds it aesthetically pleasing because the accuracy cannot be beaten.

Here are a couple of poor pictures I took right after I got it in November.

I live in Northern Virginia. wher can I find a local authorized Dealer that will discount most models of current rolex for men ?

I tried the tysons 2 mall at Lindquist and they told me to "pound sand".

Where did you buy your watch and how much did it cost ? did you have to negotiate the price or was it the listed retail price on this watch. I like it alot and want to get a black face watch in either stainless or 2 tone bracelet.

Please shoot me an e-mail to: kr5flute@yahoo.com

Thanks,

reddog

[cody p]

i'm pretty sure it's the cal. 3130. nice watch!

[roamer]

Originally Posted by reddog

I live in Northern Virginia. wher can I find a local authorized Dealer that will discount most models of current rolex for men ?

I tried the tysons 2 mall at Lindquist and they told me to "pound sand".

Where did you buy your watch and how much did it cost ? did you have to negotiate the price or was it the listed retail price on this watch. I like it alot and want to get a black face watch in either stainless or 2 tone bracelet.

Please shoot me an e-mail to: kr5flute@yahoo.com

Thanks,

reddog

I'll fire an email off with this info to per your request, but I got mine at Smythe Jewelers in Annapolis, MD. I negotiated 5% off and they threw in a winder. I thought this was good at the time but have since come to learn through this site that I probably could have done better. Including tax the watch and winder was $4300.

Hope that helps.

ETA: the from field in the email will be "roamer" and the address will be iam _at_ hackingyour dot net. I mention that so that you don't delete it as spam which many do when they get email from folks they have never heard of/from before with odd names :)

[RandyGMT]

I bought this very watch last Saturday. I got the one with the orange ring on it. I was looking for something different than my TT-Yacht Master I wear everyday. I think it looks real nice. A little smaller than the YM. Its a classy looking Rolex.

[MYK]

I just love the dial!

[RandyGMT]

Here it is. What do you think?

[zak98]

love that dial too.. tried one on about a week ago. also with the "blue dot" dial. really hard for me not to plan on one of these for my future next purchase.

thanks for review as well!

[aelvin]

love the dial, very different from other rolexs...

[cody p]

great looking dials, they have pizzazz!

[Lion]

This watch definitely has a style of it's own but I do like it!!!

[hflee55]

nice watch!

[abrumley]

I just purchased that watch yesterday as well i got the black and silver i love it!

[jblack169]

I just bought the black dail from an authorized dealer in Asia. I notice that there is a small barcode looking black mark on the left side of the case. Does anyone know what that is?

[Gerardus]

Love those oysters!

[The GMT Master]

Originally Posted by jblack169

I just bought the black dail from an authorized dealer in Asia. I notice that there is a small barcode looking black mark on the left side of the case. Does anyone know what that is?

General consensus is that it's an internal Rolex barcode - it's on a removable protective sticker, so it's not a permanent feature