Rolex Quietly Updates The Datejust With New Roman Numeral Dial

This year at Watches and Wonders, Rolex released a number of exciting watches surrounding the 100-year anniversary of the Oyster case. We had the Oyster Perpetual with the 100 Year dial and crown, we had the Jubilee dial with its unique printing application process, we had the Ombre Datejust, the Jubilee Day-Date, and the platinum & steel Daytona, to name a few. But let’s put the car in reverse and revisit the Datejust for a moment because while that green Ombre dial was one of the stars of the release cycle, it wasn’t the only Datejust release.

In fact, a whole slew of Datejust models in both 36 and 41mm went relatively unnoticed at the beginning of the fair, and it took us a couple of weeks to see that they were hiding in plain sight. These new iterations of the Rolex Datejust  represent a subtle upgrade to the line, but for superfans of the brand and keen observers alike, these are worth a look.

So you may remember some years back, Rolex revamped the Day-Date 40 with a new dial presentation featuring applied Roman numerals. These became known, in Rolex parlance, as "Deconstructed" Roman numerals due to their sans-serif styling and overall bare-bones modern look and feel. For years, this existed solely in the 40mm range and had a specific configuration where the markers at 1,5,7,9, and 11 were sticks or batons, and the rest of the markers (save for the cyclops at 3) were those aforementioned Romans.

In 2024, that style came to the Day-Date 36, which previously utilized a more classic serif Roman motif at that size. So consider that year the precedent to bring the deconstructed Roman numeral format to a smaller case size.

The Datejust, in recent years, has also been where the serif motif has lived if you were to find a Datejust with Roman numerals. Think of the “Wimbledon” dial, and you have an idea of the style I am talking about. This year, a quiet release from Rolex is a series of Deconstructed Roman numeral Datejust dials from steel to white Rolesor to Everose/yellow two-tone. There was no fanfare from these releases, but they represent some real under-the-radar winners from the show this year.

These are entering the Datejust lineup in both 36mm and 41mm sizes. In steel (or white Rolesor), there are clean classic dial options by way of a white and a bright blue, both of which are available with white gold fluted bezels or steel and on Oyster or Jubilee bracelets. When it comes to two-tone, the dials range in various hues of green to brown, to grey, and even lavender and pink (if you opt for variations with diamond dials).

This new look is distinctive, though not without historical precedent. The Datejust ref. 16220 models from the 1990s spring to mind as they utilized a very similar sans-serif Roman numeral design, though not identical. Here, the numerals are presented radially around the dial, whereas the previous iteration in 16220 presented the numerals vertically throughout. Unlike the Day-Date, there are no facets or angles to the numeral markers; they are quite flat in their appearance. And further, unlike the Day-Date, there are Romans throughout the dial, instead of the interstitial batons used on the President.

Overall, this is a classic design tweak from the Crown that takes its most popular model range into a new era with a more modern approach to a classic dial format. The Rolex Datejust deconstructed Roman Numeral dials may not stay under the radar for long, but we couldn’t help ourselves from shedding some light on these. You can learn more at rolex.com