We’re discussing the rarest, most desirable, and most collectible Rolex watches on the market today. Let’s start with some ground rules:
First, you should treat this guide as a starter pack for future research. It’s a user-friendly way to get into the best of the Rolex catalog. We’ll cover a lot of insider terms, but including every little esoteric detail like Z serial numbers, Mark 5 dials, flat fours, or frog foot logos in an exhaustive list would be… exhausting, not to mention a bit impossible.
Next, we’ve tried to include more (relatively) affordable watches when possible. For example, you know we’ll talk about rare and expensive Paul Newman Daytonas, but we’ll also include more attainable Zenith Daytonas.
“Universal Bonus Points” refer to any qualities or details that almost always increase the desirability of a watch, so we won’t mention them every time they come up. Watches in excellent condition with unpolished cases are always going to be more expensive. Watches with stamps from Tiffany & Co., special issue governmental stamps, or even Domino’s Pizza logos will always be more expensive. You’ll see similar phenomena with gilt dials and often with tropical dials or faded “ghost” bezels. If you combine a few of these into one watch, they have a compounding effect and create exponential market value. These factors can apply to most watches on this list, so we won’t repeat them every time a new watch comes up.
We also won’t really discuss prices because the market is always changing, collector taste is always changing, and for rare Rolexes, the market rates really vary not just reference by reference but by each individual watch. For a general sense, you can scroll to the bottom of a Chrono24 listing page for, say, an Explorer ref. 1016, or checkout the Chrono24 Watch Collection Feature, and see how prices have fluctuated over time.
Finally, we’ll largely skip over precious metal and gem-set watches. These are expensive watches due to the materials used, so if you sort by price from high to low on Chrono24, you’ll see modern solid gold Submariners side by side with rare vintage versions, but the latter is ultimately more collectible than the former.
Rolex Oyster Perpetual
Rolex created (arguably) the world’s first waterproof wristwatch in 1926 with the Rolex Oyster. We say arguably because there is emerging evidence that lesser-known companies created this technology about a decade or so before. In 1927, the brand made international news when English swimmer Mercedes Gleitze completed her 10-hour swim across the English Channel wearing a Rolex Oyster.
In 1931, Rolex introduced their first automatic movement featuring a rotor that spins 360 degrees. The first-ever automatic watch is also up for debate, but the patented Rolex system laid the framework for essentially every automatic movement that followed. With these two technologies—waterproof cases and self-winding movements—you have the two most important pieces of DNA for a Rolex sport watch. These daily driver watches were ready for anything you could throw at them, and they would run accurately for years and years if worn frequently.
Because the Oyster Perpetual lineup has long been on the entry level of Rolex sport watches, there aren’t as many collectible variations as there are for the Submariner or the Daytona, for example.
Still, in recent years, we’ve seen the rise of colored dial Rolex OPs with the “Tiffany” blue emerging as the leader. This colorful series of watches was only made for one year, which adds to their exclusivity. In 2023, we saw the release of the Celebration dial Oyster Perpetual, which has also become a modern favorite on the secondary market. For vintage OPs, you have the rare Tru-Beat featuring a mechanical movement that beats once per second. For comparison, modern Rolex movements beat 8 times per second. This Tru-Beat function was marketed toward doctors to more accurately measure a patient’s pulse. Not many of these watches were produced, and the specialized movements are not easy to service or find replacement parts for, so those that have survived have become quite collectible.
Two other Oyster Perpetuals to look out for are any yellow gold examples with yellow gold bracelets, especially textured gold bracelets. And finally, the ref. 1530 is a short-lived mechanical version of the Oysterquartz. You may remember Rolex created the Oysterquartz featuring battery-operated movements to compete with the cheap and highly accurate quartz watches that were dominating the industry at the time and almost killed the Swiss watch industry entirely. The 1530 is the best-of-both-worlds combination of a mechanical caliber inside that very 1970s-style Oysterquartz case.
Rolex Datejust
Rolex is the best-selling brand on Chrono24, and the Datejust is the best-selling model from that brand. It’s the quintessential everyday luxury watch, and it’s been an absolute classic since it debuted in 1945, the 40th anniversary of the Rolex brand. The Datejust was the first self-winding chronometer wristwatch to indicate the date in a window on the dial. The model was equipped with a Jubilee bracelet created specifically for it, as well as the distinctive fluted bezel.
One quick way to find a collectible Datejust is to find a colored dial. Rolex made many more silver dials than they did other colors. So black, blue, or even palm dial Datejusts will naturally be more collectible. Another relatively affordable way to get into collectible Datejusts is to look for examples with four-digit reference numbers like the popular 1601 in strong condition from highly rated dealers.
For less affordable but even more collectible Datejusts, check out ones with stone dials, wood dials, or precious metal Datejusts on Presidential bracelets. For added exclusivity, you can try to find things like bark bezels or bamboo bezels, but they’re quite rare. Going back to dials, we did a deep-dive ranking of dozens of Datejust dial variations in a separate video if you want to find a Datejust variation that’s a little less common.
Rolex Millgauss
Let’s touch quickly on the Milgauss before moving on to the Explorer and the Explorer II. The Rolex Milgauss officially debuted in 1956 and was designed as an antimagnetic watch specifically for those who worked in power plants, medical facilities, and research labs. Before this, the accuracy of your mechanical watch could be compromised by electromagnetic equipment, so you either had to deal with a dysfunctional watch or not wear one at all.
After some testing at the CERN facility, it was determined that the Milgauss could protect the movement up to 1,000 gauss—hence the name Milgauss—and it did this using a soft iron Faraday cage to shelter the movement from magnetic interference. The case had to be a little chunkier to accommodate the Faraday cage, and the story behind the Milgauss isn’t as marketable as the GMT, for example, so it was never a super popular watch. Still, there are some collectible Milgauss references.
The first among these is the original Milgauss ref. 6543, which was only made for a couple of years. The Milgauss came into its own in 1956 with the ref. 6541 when it added the signature lightning bolt seconds hand. These had either smooth or rotating timing bezels, and they featured waffle-textured dials, which add a lot of value and collectibility to any Rolex watch.
You may also search for the later ref. 1019, which was the last vintage Milgauss before it was discontinued in 1988 due to a lack of sales. These are available in either a black or silver dial.
The modern Milgauss that debuted nearly two decades later is much more plentiful. It was again discontinued in 2023 after slow sales, and while discontinuations normally boost the secondary market prices of watches, it had little to no effect this time. So, if you’re searching for a collectible Milgauss, go vintage, but be prepared to pay a high price.
Rolex Explorer / Explorer II
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wore Rolex watches, now known as pre-Explorers, during their summit of Mount Everest. Following this accomplishment, Rolex created the Explorer. The watch generally is not as collectible as the Submariner, Daytona, or GMT because Rolex created it to commemorate an achievement instead of being the watch that actually accomplished these milestones.
The most collectible Explorer is the ref. 1016, which ran from 1960 to 1989. It wasn’t the first Explorer, but it’s certainly the most culturally important and is considered by many to be the simplest and yet most beautiful Rolex dial. We won’t go into detail here, but you can earn extra bonus points for finding details like frog foot logos, underline dials, or exclamation point dials. To go even further, you can hunt for an albino ref. 6610 or for a Rolex Commando. The Commando was an entry-level watch made for only two years to be sold either through the U.S. military or through Abercrombie & Fitch locations in the late 1960s. This was back when Abercrombie was a reputable outdoor brand and not the Abercrombie of the early 2000s.
Modern Explorers are less collectible, but one that stands out above the rest is the “Blackout” Explorer. After the 1016 came the ref. 14270 in 1990, and it appears the very first examples to emerge from the factory had black enamel numerals at 3, 6, and 9. Many consider this the rarest Rolex with a sapphire crystal, and it’s one of the hardest-to-find examples from the modern catalog.
We’ll touch briefly on the Explorer II, which debuted in 1971. This is a watch designed for cave explorers who needed to know whether it was day or night while deep underground. Today, it’s more commonly used as a GMT complication. The first reference for the Explorer II was the 1655. What’s great about this watch is that it’s one of the few Rolex sport watches to feel dated. And I mean this in a good way. Rolex watches are famous for being timeless classics, and yet, this one is more like a time capsule with a design that would feel out of place before or after. These are often called by their “Freccione” nickname, which means “big arrow” in Italian, or they’re called “the Steve McQueen,” although the actor never actually owned one.
More modern collectibles include polar dial Explorer IIs, known for their white dials. Collectors like these because white dials are quite uncommon for Rolex sport watches and because the dials can develop a very pleasant warmth to them over time. This patina process does not happen with the contemporary polar dials because the materials have been improved to be more age-resistant.
Stay tuned
Are you still missing a few classic Rolex models? You are right! But don’t worry, we won’t disappoint you. In our second part of the article, we will be looking at Rolex icons like the Submariner and GMT-Master II, among others, so it’s worth staying tuned!
