5100 Rolex ‘Texano’

We all tend to view Rolex as a monolith, confident and entirely incapable of a misstep. Well no, not always. The quartz revolution was the last event to place Rolex truly on the back foot. And this was Rolex’s first shot across the bow back to Japan. It is the ref. 5100, better known as the Texano. Its history in development is fascinating. It’s an integrated bracelet that looks different to any later Oysterquartz. And it is one of very few individually numbered Rolexes, each case was engraved sequentially.

Quartz revolution watches, oscillating crystals produced when quartz was cutting-edge technology and not a slur, are gaining their own cult collector base . . .rightly so. The Beta-21 was Switzerland’s earliest rival to Japan. 21 of Switzerland’s finest watchmakers, including Rolex, put their best and brightest together to create a quartz calibre in a consortium, Centre Electronique Horloger. That legendary Beta-21 powers the Texano. It even had a sapphire crystal. It was the first Rolex with a quickset. At time of launch, this was the most sophisticated and advanced Rolex ever. And it had the first integrated bracelet Rolex had made, with more dimensionality and beveling than either the Oysterquartz or Midas which followed.

Rolex made roughly 1000 examples in white and yellow gold. The rumor today is 900 yellow gold, 100 white gold. It was deliberately exclusive, heavy, and expensive. Rolex even created an owners-only club for their quartz owners with exclusive events and tours. There are conflating reports of just where the Texano nickname originated. Some say it’s because of the 39mm case, that ‘Everything is bigger in Texas, even Rolex.’ Others will tell you it’s because the cost was so exorbitant that one had to be a Texan oil baron to afford one. Either way, for people who call all Rolex a ‘Texas Timex’, this is the actual one. It’s more important than its relative small fame or enthusiast base would suggest; it’s less sexy than a Daytona, but just historic.

This example is pretty early in production, a first generation with case 133. The case looks great, not perfect but very lovely. Its dial, comparably, sports only the very lightest signs of patina at all. There’s no tritium on this dial or indeed the hands, so no degradation to worry about. It comes from a well-regarded Barcelona retailer.