Notes: This watch is a no-date Oyster Perpetual using Rolex's common stainless steel/gold hybrid design. The case is stainless steel and the bezel is 18k yellow gold. The bracelet is a matching gold/stainless hybrid. The bezels can be fluted but is more commonly smooth. The dial faces can vary but champagne, white and gray are all common. The hour marks are sually index or roman but can be also and index/arabic combination. I have only seen 3-link (oyster) bracelets with this model. Unlike many similar Rolex models, this one does not seem to have a diamond hour mark option. It likely listed around $5,000 when it was sold in the early 1990s.

Rolex re-released this model with an upgraded mechanism in the 2000s as the 14203M.

Mechanism: The Rolex caliber 3035 was introduced in 1977 as what many refer to as a high-beat caliber 1575. In 1977, the Cal. 3035 ended the 12-year run of the 1570, it became the first men’s high-beat caliber Rolex had ever made. By increasing the balance speed from 19,800bph to 28,800bph, the new movement was able to offer an even greater level of accuracy and robustness than the already formidable abilities of its predecessor. The 3035 has a hacking capability.

It was this new speed on the 3035, causing the seconds hand to ‘tick’ eight times per second, that introduced the smooth sweep that is so characteristic of Rolex watches. Along with upping the movement’s frequency, which has since been adopted by every subsequent model Rolex has produced, the Cal. 3035 also led the field in another aspect; it was the first automatic caliber to feature a quickset function.

Family Notes: In 1926, Hans Wilsdorf introduced the Oyster watch which used a waterproof case, hence the name. He added "Perpetual" to the name when in 1933 he introduced a reliable automatic self-winding watch. Hence the name means "Waterproof, Self-Winding" in Rolex-speak and generally means the watch is water resistant to a depth of 100 meters.