Rolex Oysterquartz Datejust Ref. 17013

During the 1970s, Swiss watchmaking went through significant changes. The watch designs became more bold, colorful, and different. At the same time, there was a big problem called the Quartz Crisis that affected the whole industry in a very serious way. This crisis made Swiss watch companies think about using quartz technology in their watches, which they hadn’t done before.

After working on it for five years, Rolex made the Oysterquartz watch in 1977. It was their first watch with a quartz movement made by Rolex themselves. This particular watch, like the one described here with the Caliber 5035, had a date function. Another version, with the Caliber 5055, also showed both the date and the days of the week, which was used in the Day-Date model.

The new design of the Oysterquartz watch had a unique shape that was different from other Rolex watches at that time. In this two-tone example, it had a bracelet made of both steel and gold, with two special gold links that you’d only find in the Oysterquartz model. After the difficult time caused by the Quartz Crisis, the Oysterquartz watches were made until 2001, when they stopped production.