‘Amtlich Geprüft’ Dial 1803 Rolex Day-Date

If you look closely, you’ll see this doesn’t say ‘Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified’. Instead, it says ‘Superlativer Chronometer Amtlich Geprüft’. Now, it means the exactly same thing. But strictly speaking, this makes no sense. It’s half-English, half-German; a Christoph Waltz of Day-Dates. But why isn’t it all German? It reminds of strange Pre-Daytona chronographs where you could see up to 3 languages on one confused dial. There was no standardization 1960, just the very early hallmarks of what would become the legendary President. Or perhaps we should call this one the Chancellor.

But it’s not just the Amtlich Geprüft that makes this a bit special. First, there are the earlier style alpha handset with luminous centers. The dial, actually, is luminous. But you won’t see that in the marker centers or pips outside. In some kind of a bizarre experiment, the indices were mounted slightly raised with radium beneath them. Now, any luminous ambitions this dial had have long since faded. But it must’ve been quite the site to see these floating pointed, faceted indices lit only in relief as silhouettes back in the day. That rather sick idea hasn’t been done since in Rolex.

This was was only made 4 years after the very first Day-Dates (ref. 6510 &. 6511), and the details of this time keep pushing further. There are dashes between Oyster-Perpetual and Day-Date. The bezel fluting is closer together with a higher number of flutes than latter five-digit fluted bezels. The clasp is an early big logo. It just doesn’t stop. I particularly adore the light freckled patina that increases toward the handstack center. It’s very likely that this was born with a German day wheel, which was later replaced at service. Thankfully, they didn’t touch the dial or hands. It’s a watch that looks a lot like an end-of-production, standard gold 1803. Until you look a little closer. Then, it’s a real ‘Himmel Arsch und Zwirn’ moment.

This example has a great case, particularly considering how much older this is than most Day-Dates we consider vintage. The dial, comparably is immaculate with a lot of honest and light patina. The radium in the hands is all present too, which we rarely see. It comes from a well-regarded Dutch retailer.